At the risk of ignoring philosophical arguments, game theory, and various hypotheticals…

Until you no longer enjoy playing it. Only thing that matters.

4 years today.

If he were still around, he’d be posting here so I wanted to give him a presence on this board as well.

I’m just bemused at a self identified kind, compassionate queer community member tossing around ‘retard’ as an insult. Man, I hope she was lying. It’s embarrassing to be in the same community as someone like that.

You know, I had no problem at all with Derp being an admin when Gany first made him one.

Never let is be said that I can’t admit when I’m wrong but Derp has proven to me that I was oh so very, very wrong. I was so very wrong it’s used up all my potential wrongness for the rest of the decade so at least I’m guaranteed to be right for the next 7.5 years.

I’d like to ask all new posters start their posts with ‘I am not Macha’ just so we can keep track.

Sable showed up at the door one day and said she wanted a home. She was too thin, infested with bugs, and injured. She was also extremely affectionate. She got food, water, a box to hide in, and petting. She was still there the next morning (which was a Monday) so she went to the vet.

She got defleaed. her injuries treated, and given a physical. She wasn’t microchipped. She came home that day. No shelter or animal society had any all black, lost cat notifications so she found her home.

She’s a very smart girl since 6 weeks or so later she gave birth to a single kitten, being too malnourished to carry more to term. Or even show that she was pregnant. The vet had no idea either. She knew she needed a home to give birth to her baby so now I have Sable and Shadow, her little boy who’s twice her size.

@GF said in Bannings:

I broke my self-promise about staying away from MSB because it seemed wrong to me that Kestrel should have to try to face those losers alone, but now she’s banned, so I’m not sure what point is left. Is anyone else over there in need of backup?

I’m good. And honestly, the more they talk, the more I feel the urge to randomize my password.

Responsive staff, willing to acknowledge mistakes, and implement changes in response to feedback/complaints?

Just… damn.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

So, I’m putting this out here since it’s not been on the news despite it being a huge problem.

On 2/20, Change Healthcare got hacked by the Black Cat ransomware hackers. What is Change Healthcare? They’re the largest clearing house in the US. What’s a clearing house? They’re the middlemen between insurance companies and medical providers/hospitals.

Your doctors and hospitals send their insurance claims to the clearing house which sends them to the insurance companies. The insurance companies send the money to the clearing house which then sends it to the doctors and hospitals. The medical providers also send your prescriptions to the pharmacies which use the clearing house to validate them and file their insurance claims.

Pharmacies are starting to develop work around solutions but it’s made getting prescriptions filled difficult in many cases. Okay, inconvenient for everyone but only a disaster for some, right?

Wrong. The clearing house also has your medical information that is on the insurance claims. And Black Cat, who have claimed responsibility putting any doubt to rest, also has stated they stole 6 Tb of information. (That’s 6 million Mb so you don’t have to do the math.) So basically, anything that’s passed through Change Healthcare might now be in the hands of hackers.

Social Security numbers are not usually on insurance claim forms but your names, addresses, and insurance ID numbers definitely are. Be aware of this. It’s only been 8 days so far and no one has any idea what’s going to happen.

1 year, 8 months, and 8 days ago, my little boy Shadow died. One day I noticed he was eating less and losing weight. Then he stopped eating completely. Doctors couldn’t find anything. Less than 3 weeks later, he was dead. He was 14.5 years old. t was horrible. But at least I still had his mother, Sable.

Last week, I noticed she was feeling bonier than normal. She was always thin and underweight but not like this. I took her in for and exam and blood test, hoping it was her thyroid. That’s very treatable. Blood test results, if not normal, didn’t indicate anything that would be the cause, just symptoms. Yesterday she had an ultrasound.

There are masses in her abdomen. Without further, expensive testing, they can’t be absolutely certain but it almost certainly is cancer. The vet said three times how sorry he is. She’s 16.5.

And now I get to go through it all again, this inexorable journey towards a yawning abyss of overwhelming, crushing grief and not even one of my kids left. My heart is breaking already and I can only hope it really does on the day that’s inevitably coming.

@Roz Oh, shit. 2 months after being diagnosed? Fuck cancer. I love this video of him and Aaron Tveit singing “Take Me Or Leave Me” From Rent.

For at least today, for one moment in time, there is justice in the world. This makes me happy.

@Alveraxus said in Celebrities We Lost 2024:

Pete, with all due respect, someone’s gonna put him in something, and people are gonna want to see him.

A coffin. rimshot

That was very good. Congrats, @Coin.

Paul Alexander. Technically not a celebrity but kind of fascinating. He was the last person alive to have been in an iron lung. Back in 1952, he got polio and he was in the iron lung for 72 years. I can’t imagine it.

David Mixner

@Rinel said in Elysium /MUSH:

Back on topic, my favorite not-horrific part of this trainwreck is the flouncing away from the planet where baby goddess mysteriously gained her powers. Fuck you, Earth! You were mean to me about my predilection for preying upon children, so I’m going to go make a new reality!

This plot twist is that it’s all just a holodeck simulation (tempted to call it a stimulation).

Only if they’re 1000 year old vampires.