What's that thing doctors take for instant painless death?
You don't sound like you're doing okay, Moscha.
I took Adderall for like 4 months starting around last September for organization and concentration issues at worked. It helped, but a stimulant's a stimulant. I found that coaching helped more, both in the sense of checking in weekly with someone I could talk to without the pressure of a work relationship, and in the sense of figuring out coping strategies that worked for me. Mundane stuff like what kind of to-do list is effective, but I got myself out of the hole at work, FWIW.
Might be getting back into it, mostly because my team leader left about a month ago. I now report directly to her boss, who's too busy for check-ins as often, apparently. It's sad but I seem to benefit from being micromanaged.
Jammies has been an exceptionally good coach for me at home, but I think we've reached the limits of what he's been able to get me to do.
I'm not sure if 6 is off topic or just really meta.
There's this open question of whether I have autoimmune disease(s) since my sister has such severe and various afflictions -- I won't go into detail about possible symptoms, but in light of ongoing investigations I'm curious about the autoimmune theory of depression. Human bodies are strange. I also made myself a motivational poster with the image of Daenerys Targaryen about to snap and kill everyone and the slogan "MAKE GOOD DECISIONS," and I tell you, it has worked like a charm on productivity.
I'm really glad to hear that Pokey is doing better.
Anyway, I used to also have fantasies about being able to focus and get more done. The wisdom of age has taught me to instead be more reasonable about my abilities and how just because somebody else can work 10 hours a day for weeks on end doesn't mean I can if I tried harder. The problem is (usually) those fuckers out there and not my brain.
I mean, I'm obviously willing and able to accommodate myself to late capitalism in order to avoid not having a house with a carhole and a patio, but I'm not willing to try 10% harder to get a Tesla and nicer patio furniture.
I too am glad that Pokey's problems proved not to have anything to do with the cultural mores of Hispanics, because the implications for the future would have been dire.
Also, is it wrong to drink bee vomit straight out of the bottle?
Honestly, it's not great for hyperactivity.
Also obviously, my strategy of saying "it's not my fault, it's how much these other people suck" doesn't work really work for younger people even though it's probably more true for them than me.
12: If it's wrong, then I don't want to be right.
I decided a while back that I probably had some level of ADD (disorganized, untidy, procrastinatey, hyperfocused on things that attract my attention) but that I wasn't going to do anything about it -- my work process drives me nuts, but the results it produces seems to make the people I work for reasonably contented with me. Although I do keep on thinking vaguely that I should get therapy to get better about accepting how I work rather than being miserable about it.
I did mooch some Ritalin off a friend ages ago to see if I was going to have the 'this fixes everything experience, now I can focus' and I did not -- it made me vaguely nervous but in a way that could easily have been just the placebo effect.
Because of allergies and asthma a kid, I was taking a fair amount of stimulants while growing up, without realizing that's what it was. I don't think it helped me and now I won't even take a decongestant because I don't like the feeling.
I definitely don't like the original pseudafed feeling. Is that what we're talking about, essentially?
I did mooch some Ritalin off a friend ages ago to see if I was going to have the 'this fixes everything experience, now I can focus' and I did not -- it made me vaguely nervous but in a way that could easily have been just the placebo effect.
I've considered trying it out informally like this, too.
That what I'm talking about. I haven't tried anything new. If it wasn't for alcohol, I would never find it worth the trouble of interfering with my consciousness.
You know what I notice about myself? I have a hard time watching TV without social pressure. If there's someone else watching the same thing with me, I can stay focused, but if it's just me it's an effort to stay paying attention enough to know what's going on. And something movie-length is hopeless.
So glad Pokey is having a better year! Having a son with diagnosed ADD makes it obvious that my eternal scholastic "failures to achieve my potential" were very much the same thing. I have muddled through at 15% of my potential (or whatever) and keep muddling through, and frankly think I would be better with even less medication (i.e., if I quit coffee and only had beers at parties instead of as a semi-regular evening thing). Keep it all, except for ibuprofen and antibiotics. Related: has anyone else noticed how the internet is very distracting?
I also made myself a motivational poster with the image of Daenerys Targaryen about to snap and kill everyone and the slogan "MAKE GOOD DECISIONS,"
Not sure if this is meant to be read as "like Daenerys", or "unlike Daenerys".
Related: has anyone else noticed how the internet is very distracting?
The worst time suck for me lately is nonagrams, specifically these dumb little puzzles. They're so quick to whittle away at, and so hard to tear myself away from.
||
North Koreans in 'vicious cycle of deprivation, corruption and repression', UN report saysNo!
I suspect blogs select for people with attention issues.
22: Me too, although if I set up a screen playing a movie and then try to do something else, I do tend to drift over to watch the movie. I just have to be tricked into it.
Observing the heritability of attention/addiction issues is pretty wild. I've never tried anything stronger than Wellbutrin for ADD, but it's pretty clear that there's some unmodified, unmedicated version of my life that would be really dreadful, and I'm lucky to have had all these escape routes over the years. I don't know how much I'm going to end up pleading with my daughter to be more like her father and less like me as she gets older, though: that seems like a double-edged sword, to put it mildly. (Then again, most kids probably underestimate their mothers, whether or not they figure it out later. I know I did.)
I'm sure I've said this before, but I strongly prefer Adderall to Ritalin and the Adderall XR versus regular is another relevant distinction. I've never tried XR or Focalin. This is just to say "one of these medications felt gross" doesn't mean they all would, or would at a different dose, and even though I'm extremely flaky about taking them or maintaining a relationship with a provider, when I do take them I recognize them as helpful enough that I wish I were better about it, and that I think it's worth trying for everyone who thinks attention issues are a problem in their life and doesn't have some pre-existing stimulant addiction or cardiac problem. IMO, one doesn't have to view them as a way to be a better worker bee, but a way to spend more of your time engaged in purposeful action and doing things that make you happy or that are helpful to others (she says as, unmedicated, she flipped away from this workplace training she was supposed to be doing to comment on Unfogged).
one doesn't have to view them as a way to be a better worker bee, but a way to spend more of your time engaged in purposeful action and doing things that make you happy or that are helpful to others
However, becoming a worker bee rather than pursuing your own goals is an attested possible side effect of taking productivity meds. A little wariness can be good.
Observing the heritability of attention/addiction issues is pretty wild.
Something that makes me so, so happy is that neither of my kids is like that at all. They just get their shit done. I mean, they're not flawless, there's some procrastination, but they're nowhere near as weird about an inability to just settle down and get the easy stuff done as I always was. I think ill of Tim generally, these days, for all the obvious reasons, but the ways the kids take after him are a terrific improvement over me.
heebie, what are the sensory traits you associate with ADD?
Only tried Adderall. At low doses it made concentration a tiny bit easier. At high doses (or when mixed with too much caffeine, or with too little food, or maybe it was totally random, who knows), it almost gave me panic attacks. I'm pretty sure it never rose to the level of an actual panic attack, but it wasn't fun.
Sometimes it seems like Atossa has a better attention span than me. She'd be happy to play hide and seek or "can't catch me" for hours. I get bored of them more quickly.
25: I was going to say I found those annoyingly confusing, but I just completed my 6th and it took less than 45 seconds, so I have a bad feeling I might get sucked in too. Maybe I was just put off how the site didn't explain it well.
22, 29: This, I actually feel bad about. I have no problems focusing on movies in theaters. But sitting in front of the TV with Cassandane, I'm rarely focusing on it for more than 5 minutes at a time. Even if it's suspenseful, and/or I'm emotionally invested in the story, and/or it's a plot-heavy thing where I could miss a detail and be lost for the rest of the show. Instead I'm usually playing World of Warcraft, sometimes doing something on my phone if WoW is unavailable. I'd worry about addiction to the game but Cassandane has a similar relationship to various phone games.
Inability to handle music and noise, mostly. I can't think, and so I can't do any of my strategies to prevent boredom, and then I get very irritable. I mean, if I'm engaged in conversation and there's background music, then I'm fine, but if we're all just puttering around the house and there's music on, then, well, I'll put on my very nice noise-cancelling headphones that Jammies got for me.
Also I can't stand touching my own skin - no skirts or dresses until recently when someone (here! IIRC) recommended slipshorts to wear under them. (But even shorts are mixed.) No mittens. I no longer wear bras, but I always wear a camisole, because otherwise my arm touches my torso in a way that drives me nuts. Hair resting on my neck. Etc.
IMO, one doesn't have to view them as a way to be a better worker bee, but a way to spend more of your time engaged in purposeful action and doing things that make you happy or that are helpful to others
Tia, do you feel like you lose your edge at all? I know this is a common thing to worry about, but does it make you less funny or charming?
25: If you like nonograms, the Android App I recommend is Nonograms Katana, by ucdevs.com. Thousands of high-quality puzzles from 5x5 to 80x80, some in color and some in B&W, all of which have been vetted to have a unique solution (except for one area of user-contributed puzzles that haven't been vetted yet). Having run across lots of programs that don't do as good a job of vetting their puzzles, that is really important to me (who wants to spend a couple of hours trying to solve a puzzle that either turns out to have no solution, or lots of solutions only one of which looks like a meaningful picture). It also has a really good solving interface, keeps track of your progress and has a bunch of badges and awards for various achievements. I've solved 4274 puzzles to date, and I'm currently half-way through earning my Major Tom badge (solve 150 puzzles tagged with "Space" themes).
Also I can't stand touching my own skin
I guess this is what my stepdaughter is like. We'll be be in the supermaret shopping -- her job is be the keeper of the list - and she'll exclaim, "Don't touch me!". "I'm not even near you" "The list! It touched me!"
I like shopping without a list because that way I can buy chips plus dip and pretend it was a plan.
40: My usual m.o. when I'm alone is to make a list and then forget to take it. When I'm with my stepdaughter it's a whole different ballgame. She checks each item off the list when we get it, and scolds me when I get something that's not on the list .
So... not to change the subject, but to change the subject, what is Nancy Pelosi thinking?
Or we can just talk about whatever in this thread.
Only if you/others want a new thread. My job is most especially dull today, but I can't blow it off to do anything sustained and useful.
My question is basically: she seems to think impeachment is a trap. Is she just being stubborn? Stubbornness has served her well in the past, so maybe she's overcommitted to it? I haven't completely ruled out the small possibility that her instincts on this are right, either.
But anyway: she is 100% wrong ethically and strategically. Start impeachment proceedings because he has committed high crimes and misdemeanors, end of story. He has. It's not some bullshit Clinton "what does 'is' mean" impeachment. It's the actual reason that impeachment is appropriate.
Strategically, voters would like Democrats to have a fucking spine and stand up for what is right, not always be doing their hemming and hawing and hedging routine. So she is 100% wrong.
She is trying to get a bill through the Senate.
A no-hope bill, I guess. Maybe scratch that theory. That's never going to work.
I read a story today that the Democrats have passed a large number of bills through Congress. Since everyone knows they will all die in the Senate these bills, which are supposed to send a message that the Democrats support good things and force the Republicans to demonstrate that they oppose good things, have gotten zero news coverage. I never knew about any of them. I mean I literally get the newspaper (albeit only 4 days a week) and it's not in there. The state legislature gets infinitely more coverage.
So since that isn't working, they need to do what they do have power to do: investigate and subpoena.
Not starting a new thread was the right call, ethically and strategically.
I have so much to say about ADHD, I've been on ritalin and adderall and some others though that was a long time ago. Ritalin had an undercurrent of anxiety about it which added to my usual overflowing of anxiety was not good but it was otherwise effective. Adderall was the best though, for a while I was on a very high dose. Lot's to say about my diagnosis and such too but that's going to have to wait, because I have ADD.
Would Mueller start a new thread? Would Pelosi?
If there's an impeachment then the president won't work with Chuck and Nancy on an infrastructure bill. We wouldn't want to give that up, would we?
60: Mueller: No. Everything that is to said is in my report.
Pelosi: No. I'm busy rearranging the deck chairs.
I guess it's just Obama Syndrome. But I'm not sure I have an adequate sense of what's behind that one either. "You can't win by trying not to lose"?
If we started a new thread, people's focus would wander anyway.
It's okay for Pelosi to say she's against impeachment, as long as she's lying. Either way, the rest of the political world, including the media, has an obligation to force her hand on this.
Taking a stimulant is pretty essential for me, though most non-work days I get by on wellbutrin (enough focus so I'm not annoying distractable, and lasts all day). As much as I like getting things done so I can keep a job, have clean dishes, etc. it is distinctly unpleasant. Not in a "panic attack" kind of way, just 'I feel like I should spend my time doing boring stuff instead of goofing off'. The benefit is that if i muster up enough self-control to take it in the morning, then the hard 'keep your nose to the grindstone' effort is over, and the rest of the day flows productively from there. I can't imagine taking it unless it wasn't possible to get normal stuff done without.
I also tried the ritalin based ones, and they were complete shit. Couldn't even tell I had taken anything. Also tried modifinal, which did nothing for ADHD, though is very nice if you didn't get enough sleep and don't want to be tired. It is like a very clean caffeine. Nicotine 'gum' is probably the best thing that isn't a variety of AMP.
And yes, I'm also here because i forgot to take mine this morning. 'Forgot' may be strong.
I also tried yohimbe, and it did nothing for improving focus or motivation (and pharmacologically it shouldn't), but was fun in a 'makes things more exciting' kind of way, like it would be fun to take before a party. So maybe that is how stimulants feel for non-ADHD people who aren't prone to anxiety.
It's okay for Pelosi to say she's against impeachment, as long as she's lying.
If she's lying she is selling it very well but I don't think she's lying.
The polling on swing voters on impeachment looks bad, but I think a decent argument could be made that that is because no-one important is saying they are for it.
68: Yeah, I had been hopeful on that, but I no longer am.
As yoyo suggests, sometimes leaders are called upon to actually lead. But failing that, people have an obligation to convince her that it's politically necessary.
68: She has to sell it very well, so that when she makes her regretful announcement that the evidence of criminality has left her with no choice but to proceed with impeachment, even Trump's most fervent supporters will realize he must have done something wrong.
She knows the pee tape is real and expects it to be released soon.
She's timing out the Trump and Pence impeachment and conviction, so that she'll become President just in time so that she'll be able to announce and instantly become the frontrunner in 2020.
I don't get the whole idea that the world rewards trying hard. This isn't a sports movie. The Democrats impeach Trump, and the Republicans refuse to convict, and the public attitude will be that he's exonerated. And then he's off the hook.
74: Or the Dems don't do anything and the public attitude is that he's exonerated. Hurray! We lose! But at least we didn't waste our time trying!
Meanwhile, there's 14 months of hearings about what a shithead the president is and all the Republican Senators have to defend it.
I mean, that was basically the play the Republicans ran against Clinton, with non-stop Bengazi hearings. And it worked.
37: other people report that I seem calmer, which is not my internal experience. Anyway I am so bad about taking them (I don't many, many more days than I do) that there's no concern about edge dulling. But even if there were, the great thing about stimulants in contrast with anti-depressants is that you get to decide what kind of day it is, and whether you want to be you on the medication or you on it.
It would be really funny if Netanyahu goes to jail because he lost a second election which was called because he couldn't get religious extremists to compromise with nationalist extremists.
Probably not a good sign for Peace in the Middle East (a registered trademark of Jared Kushner).
I don't know what's best for anyone, but it's not like meds are the only benefit of a diagnosis. There's other professional help you can get, and you can understand yourself better and see patterns in your behavior (probably destructive patterns).
There's a lot of meds, and even if most of them - not Strattera - basically works the same, they work differently on different people, and what dosages you need also varies a lot.
Having said that, can't say anything has helped me appreciably yet. Trying ritalin now, and it seems to do more good than bad at least
Heebie, I think I was the person who recommended slip shorts, because I'm exactly the same way. I have a bunch of ADHD sensory things related to how certain types of clothing feels on me, too.
I echo what Tia said above. Dexedrine makes it slightly easier to go about my day, but that's about it. I metabolize drugs a bit weirdly (like ADHD, I get that from my mom), and so Ritalin and Adderal had no effect on me whatsoever. Didn't feel a thing, for good or ill.
Walt is right -- an impeachment trial too soon helps Trump too much. And there really are no points for trying and failing -- that's just a made up argument. What's happening is that it's all bubbling along, with Trump losing in court, and eventually having to decide whether to fold or go all the way outside the system.
It is too bad that our shit media doesn't just ignore the bills -- which might even be colorable as a news judgment -- but then goes out beyond, selling the myth that Democrats aren't even trying to do anything constructive because they're too blinded with Trump Derangement. Oh well, you go forward with the shit media you have, not the even halfway decent media you wish you had.
And McConnell wouldn't even bring it to trial, yes? Better, impeachment hearings in the House, where Republicans can't turn the agenda into PR.
I saw something that said a trial is mandatory under the constitution but that McConnell would just rush through a sham version as fast as possible. Which sounds about right.
84: Ok. This says basically what you do, but that in theory the rules could be interpreted such as not even to hold a sham trial. Which, this being 2019, I wouldn't consider unlikely.
84: I am very much NAL, but to a layman's eye, the language compelling a trial is much weaker than that, say, forcing a vote on a Supreme Court nominee.
38: thanks for the rec!
Having run across lots of programs that don't do as good a job of vetting their puzzles, that is really important to me (who wants to spend a couple of hours trying to solve a puzzle that either turns out to have no solution, or lots of solutions only one of which looks like a meaningful picture).
I read other people complaining about this too, and it's so weird to me - it does not seem difficult to write a nonogram solver.
Is part of the issue with multiple solutions that the starting place can uniquely determine a solution, and different starting points/paths generate different solutions? Or will any starting place generate only that portion of the solution which is common to all solutions, and then after that you have to make a choice in order to continue?
That was me.
Also as I was typing it, I thought, "this seems like a nice undergraduate math project."
If you enjoy nonograms, Nintendo has a long-running series of nonogram games called Picross, e.g. Picross S3 for the Switch. Their games are consistently high quality and the puzzles always have a single solution.
The entire world thanks you.
So, really now, this while USS John McCain thing must finally be that fake news we've been hearing about. No one is really that pathetic, right?
Today, just outside our window, two crows attacked a raccoon. That's a good omen, right? I was worried the raccoon was rabid because rabid raccoons are in the news around here and because it was visible in daylight. But it was probably just trying to eat a little crow.
I'm not a bird voyeur, but I did like the cardinals that were often outside the window. I don't suppose they stick around when there are crows.
Cardinals suck. Crows are awesome. If you get a nesting pair they circle your residence croaking ominously.
I've never actually seen a cardinal so I'm just going to assume they suck, like their superannuated namesakes.
They look like St. Louis moved to Arizona .
91, 96: You seek a great fortune, you three who are now in chains Pittsburgh. You will find a fortune, though it will not be the one you seek. But first... first you must travel a long and difficult road, a road fraught with peril. Mm-hmm. You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell. You shall see a... a cow... on the roof of a cotton house two crows attack a raven , ha. And, oh, so many startlements. I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the obstacles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. Though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye follow them, even unto your salvation.
Yes they were weren't they...
Christ, the brain it is not so good anymore. Or ever maybe.
But speaking of ravens and 98, for ominous croaking I think the Australian Raven wins. Ubiquitous in suburban Perth in my experience.
How do you keep them down on the farm after they've seen suburban Perth?
Anyway, I don't like crows because when they shit on my patio, it's a much bigger shit than the usual bird dropping.
I like raccoons even less because one shit in my kiddie-water play area back when that was something we needed.
At least the deer has the decency to shit outside the patio area.
Australian magpie nimbyism in action
This is the best:
There's also an update included!
Omg. That poor dude, that's hilarious.
People are always on Nextdoor talking about rescuing cats. I don't get it myself, but hobbies are good.
|| I saw that "Jan Brady" was trending on Twitter. It turns out that it's because Trump tweeted, "Russia, Russia, Russia!" which reminded people of Jan's most famous line, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" What a world! Do young people know about The Brady Bunch? Do people all over the world know about The Brady Bunch? ||
For craigslist: bobcat, never owned.
Pretty sure the bobcat thing is a good-natured hoax, photos courtesy of people who have a docile pet bobcat somewhere. (Truly, it would be impossible to make this mistake.)
Anyone want to explain the difference between a crow, raven, and rook?
Rooks play chess. Ravens do epistemology. Crows peck out your eyes as you expire on the field of battle.
||
How about the new bombshell in the census citizenship question case? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/us/census-citizenship-question-hofeller.html?login=email&auth=login-email
|>
118: Bombshell? Who didn't know this already? Will this story make any difference to the Supreme Court?
The NYT certainly didn't try to oversell the story:
Deceased G.O.P. Strategist's Hard Drives Reveal New Details on the Census Citizenship Question
This is just "details." If it had been an actual bombshell, the headline would have looked more like this:
Census Citizenship Question Designed to Suppress Minority Representation, Court Documents Show
Or maybe:
GOP Strategist's Files Show Administration Misled Congress, Courts on Census Question
Or maybe:
GOP Strategist's Files Reveal Census Plan To Boost White Voting Power
But that's old news. The only new elements are the "details."
Who didn't know this already?
I say with firsthand knowledge, the trial team.
120: I coulda clued 'em in. The census question has long been known to be a tool to suppress minority voting power. (You knew that, of course.) When Wilbur Ross told Congress that the census question was intended to help enforce the Voting Rights Act, he was transparently lying, as Gore was when he told the court this. I have a hard time believing that the trial team lacked this knowledge.
I'm sure the trial team (the plaintiffs' side, I assume you mean) did not know about Hofeller's specific research and the documentation that has been discovered. But as the NYT says, that's "details."
Yeah, I know the lawyers and other procedural liberals get excited about this kind of thing, but does this revelation materially change the situation? Will Gore, Ross et al resign and/or face chargers for perjury? Will it change the SCOTUS decision? Will Trump's reputation on racial issues change? My guess is no on all counts, but maybe I'm too cynical.
I have a hard time believing that the trial team lacked this knowledge.
Lacked the knowledge that suppressing minority/immigrant votes was the intent? Of course they knew that. Lacked the knowledge that there was explicit documentation of that intent which the Commerce Department was obliged to produce to them in discovery but which it fraudulently withheld from them? People can suspect anything, but they really didn't know, and it's important. Would have plausibly resulted in a different decision at the trial court level, where plaintiffs won on the APA claims but not on discriminatory intent.
We need a raven to teach us the difference between correct belief and knowledge.
Fine, you can have two but it'll cost you an eye.
Okay, that's probably my favorite series of comments here ever.
124: Is there a remedy available once the case has been argued before the Supreme Court but the decision not yet announced? Can they somehow petition the court to allow them to rebrief based on this newly discovered information, or something like that?
The the circuits, you can send a Rule 28(j) letter. I've never had to do it in the Sup Ct, so I don't know.
I suppose one could take a run at filing a Sup Ct rule 25.6 supplemental brief, which requires leave of court. I say that not looking at any of the orders applying rule 25.6 and 25.7.
I think medicine is very different here in this area. I would LOVE to take something that would tee me up to do the boring shit instead of goofing off. I can't see that being offered to me unless things were very different, even though my work product is thoroughly fucked. Instead I am seeing a counsellor every week to try and deal with my shit. I saw her before a couple of years ago when I had terrible anxiety. I was talking to my GP before Christmas about borderline depression anyway and then the thing happened in January where my crush/obsession came a cropper and my heart cracked in two. She says I'm much healthier / more open now than I was a few years ago but I don't perceive that myself.
(Is there a pause / play equivalent for when you post on the original q. but the conversation has moved on??)
(Is there a pause / play equivalent for when you post on the original q. but the conversation has moved on??)
Maybe they give a bonus for percentage of clients who are healthier?
132 133. I don't see why you'd have to do that. It's the original topic.
These are very good thoughts ... thanks for sharing this article.
I usually draw, and it allows me not to think about the bad.