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General Chit-Chat Part 2!
message 1651:
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Joan
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Mar 31, 2019 04:57PM
Janice JG Thanks for that info
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https://prisonbookprogram.org/resourc... is a site dedicated to this, and the link I found came from a duckduckgo search for Massachusetts ones, and that page is herehttps://prisonbookprogram.org/donates...
Karin wrote: "https://prisonbookprogram.org/resourc... is a site dedicated to this, and the link I found came from a duckduckgo search for Massachusetts ones, and that page is h..."Thanks, that's another good source. The Sentences group here at GR focuses on prison libraries rather than on donations to individual prisoners, which usually have to be made through a third party like the groups in the link, or must be bought new and sent from Amazon etc. I am able to mail boxes directly to the prison libraries listed in the Sentences group, and I am able to donate more different kinds of books this way. Either type of donation is incredibly appreciated, I'm sure.
New re Thunder the kookaburra for sale in a US pet shop. It is not illegal apparently because the kookaburra was born and bred in USA from birds imported when the laws in AU had not tightened. Now it is illegal to export any of our animals or birds unless of course an exchange is done between zoos.Good news though!!! While a group of us here donated $4200 to buy and get the bird into an American sanctuary, unfortunately or fortunately which ever way you look at it, due to social media abuse, the pet shop owner placed the bird in a sanctuary in Florida so we have lost track of him. It is great to see him out of pet shop atmosphere but as we all know, there are sanctuaries and there are sanctuaries. Moreover, we do not know where he is now and have no chance to follow things up.
One of our nightly news wrap shows The Project, or 10daily.com.au, has promised to keep a regular follow up on his progress. We can only hope they do.
B- I had not heard about the kookaburra news story but am glad to hear he’s in a sanctuary!
Me too, Pam, but will wait to hear which sanctuary. This was just one of those times when I could not sit back but had to help a defenseless creature locked in a cage.
What color pieces do you use for checkers? I’ve only seen checkers with black & red, but in American Gods, Neil Gaiman has them play with black & white. Is that what people use in the U.K.?
Joan wrote: "What color pieces do you use for checkers? I’ve only seen checkers with black & red, but in American Gods, Neil Gaiman has them play with black & white. Is that w..."
In Italy it's black and white (although they are really dark brown and light brown). I even found out that there are several national checkers variants, and that the Italian one differs from the English/American one. There is an international variant as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draught...
This is the Italian board:
Omg! Watching the horrific scene on tv as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is burning., Praying that no one is hurt . Thinking of the French people. They have just said firefighters are unsure they will be able to save it. How terribly sad ! Such history.Edit to above. The reports are that they can save the main building.
Angela M wrote: "Omg! Watching the horrific scene on tv as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is burning., Praying that no one is hurt . Thinking of the French people. They have just said firefighters are unsure they wi..."My son is sad because of its importance in music history. The spire has fallen and now they are saying they can't save the cathedral. Did they save any of the artwork?
I haven’t heard anything about the artwork, Karen , but the latest is that the main building can be saved .
Just when it was undergoing a renovation project too. How sad.
I was shocked to hear that yesterday. I went to Paris twice but for various reasons I was never able to visit Notre Dame, which was always my dream to visit. I've heard they can save the main structure but I'm afraid it will never be the same.
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We've all been appaled by those images yesterday evening. I'm, as you probably know that already, an atheist, but seeing that church, symbol not only of christianity but of all our past culture, going up in smoke made me cry. We are sort of used in Italy to see our precious treasures going into ruins - La Fenice Theatre, Great parts of Pompei, thousends of little musums without money to preserve their works. But I had never thought I could see such a thing in Norther Europee. It is sad indeed.
Sic transit gloria mundi .... or at least the gloria of the weastern culture ...
It withstood so much in the past, a symbol of endurance and memory. Beauty without measure. So touching to see the Parisians singing, while watching the cathedral burn.
I read they managed to save the art work and relics and the main structure is still standing. Millions of dollars have already been contributed to rebuild, which is wonderful. But even with rebuilding, it will never be the same. There's something about looking at a structure that is 800+ years old that can never be replicated.
Members in another group are saying the structure has been saved and it can be rebuilt from that.What amazed me most is that ND was built from wood. I had imagined stone of some type.
Odd thing is the the Titanic sank exactly 107 years before this current tragedy.
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Remember though that, as often if not always in very old buildings, it was not wholly 800 years old: the spire that caught fire for instance, had been built on the XIX Century! It is the whole that was unique, not the actual date of building it
LauraT wrote: "Remember though that, as often if not always in very old buildings, it was not wholly 800 years old: the spire that caught fire for instance, had been built on the XIX Century! It is the whole that was unique, not the actual date of building it..."Good point. Thanks!
LauraT wrote: "Tamara wrote: "I read they managed to save the art work and relics and the main structure is still standing. Millions of dollars have already been contributed to rebuild, which is wonderful. But ev..."Also, and not to detract from the tragedy, it is a well photographed building. With both church money and donations it will be possible to rebuild and restore similar to what had happened after the fires at Windsor Castle and York Minster.
I am dismayed at the destruction but it is not as irreversable as say the Taliban destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan or the many ancient and archeological tresures destroyed by Isis including Palmyra in Syria and Nineveh in Iraq.
Esther wrote: "LauraT wrote: "Tamara wrote: "I read they managed to save the art work and relics and the main structure is still standing. Millions of dollars have already been contributed to rebuild, which is wo..."Correct. They can rebuild it in about 10 years, but probably not exactly the same due to the lack of virgin forests in France.
I am so happy to have visited the cathedral many times before!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm appalled at the loss of life in Ceylon over Easter where a series of bombs shattered churches and hotels targeting Christians.
I just read about that after spending a few days away from the news and now catching up. Very sad.
B the BookAddict wrote: "I'm appalled at the loss of life in Ceylon over Easter where a series of bombs shattered churches and hotels targeting Christians."Horrible! It's tragic.
And now another shooter in a synagogue in California what the hell is wrong with people? I just don't understand that kind of hatred
Ruth wrote: "And now another shooter in a synagogue in California what the hell is wrong with people? I just don't understand that kind of hatred"No one who knew the shooter could understand how he got there, either. His shocked parents are refusing to pay for his defense, which I think sends a powerful message that they are appalled. Apparently he got into this hate on the dark web. I have heard of the dark web but have no idea how people even get there, nor do I want to know. But one has to wonder how and/or why he ended up on it. He even said that six months ago if someone had told him he'd do that he wouldn't have believed it, so this is a recent thing here.
The synagogue and the church the shooter grew up in are joining together against this hatred--he didn't learn it from his religion!!!!
There are many sites that cater to this hate unfortunately. I saw where the parents were not paying for his defence and I thought good for them. I read the statement they put out and they were shocked by his actions as were several kids he went to school with. He seemed to have a lot going for him he got good grades, he was an accomplished pianist. I don't know how you go from that to planning and carrying out an attack on a synagogue and they said he had specifically turned his gun on the children. Now he will spend the rest of his life in jail. You throw away your life for what? Hate? I will never understand that kind of thinking.
Ruth wrote: "There are many sites that cater to this hate unfortunately. I saw where the parents were not paying for his defence and I thought good for them. I read the statement they put out and they were shoc..."I don't understand it, either, Ruth!
Going to spend time with my mother and sister tomorrow. It is my Mom's birthday. She will be 89. She is in the nursing home where my sister works and has dementia. It is so very sad to see her like she is now. My mother was a voracious reader and now she struggles with trying to read simple sentences. It is heartbreaking.. the last time I was there I was talking to the nurse and asking her how my mother was doing and she said well Mom has become a bit of a kleptomaniac. I laughed and told her yeah that sounds about right. (I used to work in a dementia unit). Yoy have to laugh to keep from crying. My sister and I are also going to tag team her and see if we can get her in the shower or tub because she has been refusing them. That is kind of typical because they all seem to get this aversion to water. If that doesn't work I'll see if I can at least wash her hair in the hairdresser's room. Wish us luck I think we're going to need it. Lol
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Have a good time!
Oh Phyllis, how sad for you to see your mum that way. Good luck with the hair washing. I suppose the bright spot is you can still hug her. My mum died at 83 with all her faculties but in a lot of pain. I wonder which is worse?
The Goodreads Quote that popped up in my app today struck me as depressingly tone deaf-“Threats are the last resort of a man with no vocabulary”
I’d say that threats are often the last resort of a person with no power and few options.
I’m saddened to think about such a sound bite spreading and influencing how folks respond to each other.
Elvis Presley sang a better idea:
Walk a mile in my shoes
Walk a mile in my shoes
Yeah, before you abuse, criticize, and accuse
Walk a mile in my shoes
https://www.google.com/search?q=walk%...
Joan wrote: "The Goodreads Quote that popped up in my app today struck me as depressingly tone deaf-“Threats are the last resort of a man with no vocabulary”
I’d say that threats are often the last resort of ..."
I totally agree with you, Joan. Who was the author of that quote?
Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "Joan wrote: "The Goodreads Quote that popped up in my app today struck me as depressingly tone deaf-“Threats are the last resort of a man with no vocabulary”
I’d say that threats are often the la..."
I’ve found that the Goodreads quote attributions are often wrong. We all know Amazon can afford to hire coders & fact checkers but doesn’t. So I don’t trust the author’s name attached to the quote.
Ruth wrote: "Going to spend time with my mother and sister tomorrow. It is my Mom's birthday. She will be 89. She is in the nursing home where my sister works and has dementia. It is so very sad to see her like..."My heart goes out for you. My mother, 81, has dementia and it is sad.
Things have not been going well for a while now. It all started with that problem with my hand of which I wrote before (Raynaud's phenomenon apparently) and after that it just went downhill. I now have a whole bunch of different symptoms, the most serious of which are weight loss and extreme fatigue bordering on exhaustion. My BMI is still okay, but my fat mass index is worryingly low. I'll be going to my GP's in a couple of hours to see if he has any advice. I still need to do more blood tests, but I won't be able to do them before June 3rd because of technical problems at the hospital. After that I will make a new appointment with the rheumatologist and see if she can understand what's going on. In the meantime I really need to do something about it all. I only slept 3 hours last night. Next time I hear someone saying it's psychosomatic I'm going to scream. Just because I've had mental health issues doesn't mean every single health issue I have is psychological in nature. I've had crazy psychosomatic problems, among which even partial deafness, but you don't lose fat mass because of psychological/psychosomatic issues.
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So sorry to hear all this Marina. Have you thought about autoimmune disorders? My daughter has one of these, and we've been told that also some reumathoid desease could be of that origin.
This is not a good period: I'll enter hospital this coming Sunday and on Monday I'll have my thyroid taken out. After that I'll have to stay put some 2/3 weeks, also because I'll have to check how the replacement therapy is doing!
More time to read, but certainly I don't think I'll like staying home all those hours, now that the weather is getting better!
So sorry, Laura. I hope everything will run smoothly for you - one of my friends underwent the same operation, and while it was no fun at all, she's fine now. Sending you positive thoughts.As for me, yes, the rheumatologist has recommended a lot of blood tests for autoimmune diseases, while my GP earlier today recommended even more blood tests for other diseases. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how the tests go.
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And keep us updated!
You keep us posted, too, Laura. I'm sure we will be all thinking of you and sending you good vibes.
Keep us updated, both of you!Marina, I hope they will find out what it is as soon as possible.
Laura, I wish you all the best, both for the surgery and the recovery.
Marina, I'm sorry for the delays and worry. I hope the Dr's find out what the problem is quickly and take care of it. Laura, I hope recovery is quick so that you can enjoy your time off and the good weather. I hope the surgery goes well and you are home quickly.
Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "Things have not been going well for a while now. It all started with that problem with my hand of which I wrote before (Raynaud's phenomenon apparently) and after that it just went downhill. I now ..."Marina, I hope it turns out to be something that can easily be treated.
Be sure to get properly screened because in addition to the other things mentioned, unexplained weight loss can also be a symptom of certain types of cancer (and, yes, fatigue, too). But don't let them get away with telling you it's all psychosomatic!
LauraT wrote: "Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "Things have not been going well for a while now. It all started with that problem with my hand of which I wrote before (Raynaud's phenomenon apparently) and after that ..."I hope your surgery goes smoothly and that your thyroid replacement therapy works well!
Marina, I was going to suggest autoimmune diseases too. like Lupus which can have a whole host of varying symptoms and mimic many other diseases. My sister was recently diagnosed with Paget's disease, the main symptoms being lethargy and weight/fat loss (although you may be too young tor that one). I wish you the best of luck.Laura, hope you surgery goes well.
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