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starkiller

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7-Nov-2003
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7-Mar-2008
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Post
#249102
Topic
I think I could really use some advice
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/249102/action/topic#249102
Time
Hello everyone,

I've been a member here for quite a long time. I've seen some weird things and strange people. I've also seen some very compassionate things happen. I visit a lot of message boards and I do not remember seeing that anywhere else. When people have posted their actual, real life problems, others have stepped up to help them out.

Well, I find myself in a position where I could use some advice.

Over the last few months, I have been dealing with a very tempermental stomach ache. (At first read, I know that sounds rather trivial.) A little over a month ago, I went to the doctor, who attributed it to stress and gave me a prescription for Zantac.
I had hoped that 1 month on the medication would have fixed me up and good as new. I was wrong and I now have a future 2 months supply.

I am slightly concerned that an upset stomach was just a first symptom of the stress. I've got extremely tense muscles. My appetite has changed (that could be part of the stomach trouble though). I feel more irritable with library patrons at work. In the last week or two, I've started having trouble sleeping. Bed at 11-11:30, wake up for no apparent reason at 2-2:30, then again at 5, again at 6 or 7 and a near complete inability to get back to sleep after that. Normally, I would sleep until 8 or 8:30 without interruption.

I have decided that from October 16 to the 22, I am taking a week off from work and I'm going to use the time for introspection and meditation. Try to reduce the stress as well as find the root of it.
No internet, no phone, probably no TV or even radio, and minimal time outside the house.

I need to try to determine what in my past could be causing the trouble and make some decisions about my future that are also weighing on my mind.


Some not-so-quick thoughts about what MIGHT be a big factor in causing it:
(You can skip this if you like, just go all the way to the bottom of the post).

Some of you know me and have heard my story. I'm a 26-year-old computer lab attendant, who's never dated in his life and is shy like Crispin Glover's George McFly in Back to the Future.
I am extremely awkward in social situations, even among people I know (including family). Typically at large get-togethers, I'll stand off to the side with a (non-alcoholic) drink in my hand watching other people talk. Conversation with me often ends up being forced.

I want to change that. I want to be more social. It came up one day in conversation at work and one of my coworkers is willing to help (BTW: She and I have developed what I consider a pretty strong friendship in the 1.5 years since she started working at the library. In fact, I'd say its the strongest friendship I've had with a girl/woman in my life. She already has a boyfriend of 8 years and I readily admit I would never want to damage that relationship...however, if it fell apart on its own, I believe I would try to step in. In one of the hardest-to-write messages I have ever had, I told her that I thought I felt more for her than I would for just a friend.)

Anyways, back to my anti-social issues...she has tried to help. She invited me to hang out with her, 2 of my coworkers and one of her other friends one Wednesday night (a day we both have off). I initially refused, saying bars and dancing wasn't my idea of fun. When she replied back in all caps, I felt like I had insulted her. That made me feel bad (which included my stomach). After some thinking, I apologized, asked if I was still invited, and got directions.
It started at a bar and then went to a dance club.
This is when my stomach trouble started, and it was so bad I ended up in the bar bathroom within 5 minutes of walking in the door and it knocked me out of a half-days work on the following Saturday. In the end, I didn't dance and drank only some ginger ale at the bar to help settle my stomach.

2 weeks later, again on a Wednesday, she invited me to join her again, this time to play a card game at her apartment. Same people involved, with the addition of her boyfriend. Again, I felt sick the entire time I was there (didn't help it was 90 degrees the entire night).

It was about 4 weeks after this incident that I sent that "hardest-to-write message" and that completely obliterated my stomach. Her reply message sat unread for days because I just didn't know how I would feel. Turns out I was grossly over-reacting. Few days after I finally read the message, I went to the doctor and ended up with the Zantac prescription.

I've had to turn down every invitation she's extended to me since because just the simple thought of it makes my stomach get worked up. (This past week, it was lunch with her and her sister, very low key and low pressure, but I still couldn't go through with it.) Reading messages from her, depending on the content, gives a slightly stronger effect. Every once in a while, its bad enough I end up making a mad dash for the bathroom (if you get my meaning).
She's been extremely understanding about the whole situation. If I could find a good time and the right words, I owe her a huge, in person thank you for everything.

When I say I plan on doing some introspection, this is the BIG issue I plan on tackling.


Anyways, I was hoping I could get feedback from anyone here that may have had to deal with (extreme?) stress-related issues. I'm pretty much flying blind because I've never been this way before.
Its never easy to write something like this, admitting you have sometime wrong with you, but as they (who is they? I don't know.) say, its the first step on the road to recovery.

Thanks for reading, your time and any help you are able to provide.
Roy
Post
#245739
Topic
The Trekkies Are Unbelievable
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/245739/action/topic#245739
Time
I think it depends on what station in your area has the rights to them.

By me, here in NE Ohio, its WBNX 55 and they played Balance of Terror at midnight (Saturday night/Sunday morning) and 2PM on Sunday. I had forgotten about recording them for the midnight showing, but I was able to catch the afternoon one.

I thought the video looked beautiful and the changed effects looked good. I've read some things myself online that they tried too hard to stay faithful to the show (to the point of overlighting the digital ship models), but I didn't notice it myself.
Post
#245692
Topic
Forgotten Films
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/245692/action/topic#245692
Time
Originally posted by: JarHead413
^....I still do.... Nightmares from E.T.??

Originally posted by: Obiwampa
'The Ghost and Mr. Chicken' Classic Don Knotts.
Oh, there are tons of Don Knotts movies that people have probably forgotten, which is a shame. The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Love God, The Reluctant Astronaut
Post
#245491
Topic
Forgotten Films
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/245491/action/topic#245491
Time
Originally posted by: JediSage
I like Battle for Endor...
I never forgot that movie. I was kind of traumatized the first time I saw it. For goodness sakes, they killed off 3/4 of the family!

Same kind of trauma I had when I first saw Jaws, or when I was 3 years old and saw the opening of E.T. Running through the underbrush, screaming with guys chasing him...I probably had nightmares for weeks.
Post
#244623
Topic
Forgotten Films
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/244623/action/topic#244623
Time
Kind of scary...I've seen Top Secret and remember it quite well (at one point, Comedy Central would play it about 5 times a week) and The Creature Wasn't Nice, I hate to say, my family has on DVD.

Do foreign films count in this? Allegro non Troppo (Italian, 1977) seems like it would be a great addition to a list of forgotten films.

Or, how about this one: The Christmas Almost Wasn't.
Post
#244086
Topic
The X-Files - Worth Watching?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/244086/action/topic#244086
Time
Originally posted by: Moth3r
It jumped the shark for me the season that featured a operative in a nuclear power plant called Homer, and a sequence with Mulder - occupying someone else's body - doing some stupid dance in front of a mirror.

But the early seasons are essential sci-fi viewing.
The Michael McKean episode. Mildly amusing.

BTW: Thanks Jay, probably a good thing to call a spoiler.
Post
#243922
Topic
The X-Files - Worth Watching?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/243922/action/topic#243922
Time
Have to agree with the comments about the Jose Chung episode. No one mentioned that Charles Nelson Reily plays the Jose Chung character, or the spoof on Fox's own 'Alien Autopsy' show, hosted by The Stupendous Yappi.

I also enjoy early episodes like the one with Peter Boyle (which also had Yappi) as a psychic insurance salesman and there was one where Mulder and Scully visited a trailer park of side-show freaks.
One later episode that I found amusing was the one with Gary Schandling, where they were "making a movie" about the X-Files.
"I have a confession Mulder, I'm in love with assistant director Skinner."

The show did trail off when Duchovny left, and things never good as good as they were even after he returned. I followed through to the end as best as I could. ******* in the final episode completely threw me.

Edited for spoilers

- Jay
Post
#243024
Topic
Secret CIA prisons
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/243024/action/topic#243024
Time
Originally posted by: theredbaron
Here's some background on David Hicks:

David Hicks, an Adelaide man, was captured by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in early December 2001 while travelling with Taliban soldiers who were defending their territory from the Northern Alliance. David's father, Terry, said his son seemed unaware of the September 11 attacks and extremely doubtful of their authenticity when they spoke on a mobile phone a few days after the American bombing campaign had begun.

Since David's capture he has been handed over to the Americans who have moved him to Cuba and the infamous Camp X-ray. He remains there uncharged after numerous interrogations by both American and Australian government military officers and/or officials. He was detained in a small cage for more than five months, and was transferred to a small "shed type" prison cell about the middle of 2002. There is a bed, no chair and no window. The lights are on twenty four hours a day. He has only two fifteen minute exercise periods a week where he is walked shackled between two guards. He is forced to wear an overall type uniform whether it is forty-three degrees Centigrade (over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit) or less.
So, let me get this straight...
1. He was with soldiers of the Taliban until being captured by someone (Northern Alliance, I would assume). Why was he with them? Did he support them? There were many American-born Taliban found and arrested.
2. He doubted the 9/11 attacks ever happened. (even when told by his own father, so I assume?) Why did he doubt?
3. Why would his own government interrogate him numerous times? If he is innocent, and they believe it, why have they not launched some kind of formal protest with the US State Department? The US and Australia are on very good terms and if he is as innocent as you seem to think, expediting his return should be important to both sides.

I'm sorry, but nothing about that story tells me he deserves to be let go at the moment. President Bush said quite plainly in the beginning that if you are not with us, you are against us. Sounds like David here was against us.
Now, if if that wasn't the case, and he was, simply put, in the wrong place at the wrong time, I agree with you.
Post
#242911
Topic
9/11 5 years later
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242911/action/topic#242911
Time
Like Stinky-Dinkins, I was at college.

I had left with my father (he worked at the college) like usual at roughly 7:30 in the morning. My first class didn't start until 8:30, but I usually hit the computer lab before class so I could check my email, etc. Class ran from 8:30 to 9:45, as scheduled. My next class started at 10. No one was in both classes, so I walked alone. When I arrived at my second class I heard a couple other students talking about something and mentioned an airplane, but I really wasn't paying enough attention to hear all the details.

This class ran from 10 to 11:50, but at 11 (when the class usually took a 10 minute break), another teacher came in, talked to my teacher and it was announced that classes had been cancelled for the rest of the day.

I walked to my Dad's office (less than 5 minutes), where he was getting his things together. He told me what happened. I was understandably shocked. We went to the parking garage and sent probably the next hour and a half trying to get out of the garage. We had the radio on, but I really wasn't paying much attention. All I remember is that Dr. Laura was supposed to be on, but in light of what happened, the local morning guy was working overtime, acting as a mouthpiece for the station news staff.
Things got a little faster after getting out of the campus garage, but not by much.

You see, Cleveland was very much involved in the whole 9/11 situation. Flight 93, which had recently broadcast its distress call about a bomb being on board, crossed paths (different elevation) with another flight at about the same time its transponder and radio were shut off by the terrorists. Cleveland, being the regional center for air traffic control, had no idea which of the 2 flights had made the broadcast.

When one plane turned back east and the other continued towards Cleveland, the decision was made to evacuate the entire downtown Cleveland area. We were in bumper-to-bumper for probably another hour or more until we got on the highway back to the suburb where we lived. The plane that didn't turn east continued to Cleveland, landed at Hopkins International and was searched. By that time, the attacks were long since over.
Post
#242711
Topic
Secret CIA prisons
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242711/action/topic#242711
Time
Originally posted by: ricarleite
That news story has GOT to be a joke. I cannot belive a serious journalist would write that. Not even Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh would be capable of that... hmn... on a second thought... Note the date...you're looking at a very inflamed journalist 16 days after 9/11 (as I noted when I posted it). I'm sure 16 days after there was talk of placing people in camps around the US the same way they did during World War 2.

Take a look at the rest of the website. It is a propaganda site for Christian fundamentalism.
I've been reading random articles from the site for months (linked from other sites and today was the first time I actually visited its main index) and I've never gotten that impression, what specificially do you see that makes you say that??
Post
#242627
Topic
Secret CIA prisons
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242627/action/topic#242627
Time
So, you'd suggest we allow them the benefits of the US justice system that they would seek to destroy? That's allowing them to exploit another part of our society that they view as a weakness.

Returning to a previous item, I found an article online, put up 2 weeks after 9/11:
If pigs could fly ...
Posted: September 27, 2001
1:00 a.m. Eastern

WASHINGTON – Pigs, hogs, swine, porkers, barrows, trotters. When Americans aren't eating them – hot dogs, bologna, spareribs, pig's knuckles, ham, bacon, pork chops – they're adoring them on TV or the big screen. Hollywood has transformed the stinky, snorty critters into lovable pink-bellied icons known affectionately to all of us as "Porky Pig," "Arnold" or "Babe."

In short, most Americans love pigs.

But to Muslims, they are just stinky, snorty critters, the quintessence of uncleanliness.

Indeed, Muslims are forbidden to eat pork by the Koran, their holy book. To knowingly eat pork is to commit an act of sin which could jeopardize their ascension to Paradise.

It's not just meat they have to be careful about eating. They also have to check that cheeses and yogurts – even cake frosting – don't contain "unclean" byproducts such as pork lard.

When traveling on American jetliners, orthodox Muslims typically order vegetarian meals to avoid the chance encounter with one of Arnold Ziffel's relatives. On Arabic airliners, they ask for a "blessed" meat called halal. Such non-pork meat has been drained of blood during the slaughtering and butchering process. The Koran forbids the consumption of animal blood (which makes pig's blood virtually radioactive, an observation our military might find useful, as I'll explain further on).

So averse to pigs are Islamic fundamentalists, that even coming in contact with them – or any part of them, such as their hide – means defiling themselves. It's not a sin to touch, say, a pigskin football, but if they do, they are advised to wash their hands immediately.

Pig-fat products are on the list of items Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has declared to be against the sharia, the ruling clerics' interpretation of Islamic law.

So, you see, pigs are to Islamic terrorists – such as Osama bin Laden and his henchmen – what kryptonite is to Superman, or what garlic is to Dracula.

Take Mohamed Atta, for example.

The suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers was so careful not to eat pork fat that he scraped the frosting from cakes. Here was a man more afraid of eating a hint of pork in a dessert than flying a jet full speed into a skyscraper.

See where I'm going with this?

Few in Washington want to admit it, but these Islamic fanatics have baited us into a holy war. And like it or not, we'll have to use their religion against them to win.

Psychological warfare

U.S. forces should start by dropping leaflets over Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, warning residents, in their native Persian tongue, that we've enlisted Afghani moles to contaminate their water supplies with pig's blood.

The propaganda would also warn that American soldiers have greased their bullets with pork fat. We could tell them, while we're at it, that we've ordered special pigskin-lined fatigues for this mission.

At night, we could bombard bin Laden's camps with recordings of hog-snorting. If he and his fellow terrorists won't come out of their caves, send pen-loads of trotters in to nuzzle them.

Can't find bin Laden? Force-feed Taliban clerics pork rinds until they give up his location. If that doesn't work, air-lift pigs into their homes.

In the meantime, airlines could reupholster plane seats with pigskin, and cover cockpit yokes with the "unclean" hide to repel future Islamic hijackers. For insurance, serve passengers bacon bits instead of peanuts.

If their religion is driving them to hate Americans, and rewarding them to kill our people, then it's hardly indecent to use their faith against them to protect us.

Hit them where it hurts. They hit us where it hurts – and they're already planning to do it again.

They're not afraid of death. However, they are afraid of pigs. Send in the porkers, lock them out of Paradise, and watch them surrender.
Post
#242508
Topic
Secret CIA prisons
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242508/action/topic#242508
Time
How DARE you mock their religion!? How DARE this evil administration do such things? The media is outraged by just about everything and anything the current US government does (unless a popular democrat is involved). I could see the media becoming outraged by Bush not wearing matching socks to talk to the White House Press Corp. Would he really suffer that much more grief over it?
On the other hand, it would be the administration using the media to its advantage, just as the terrorists do. What better way to get the word out that the US will NOT tolerate terrorism anymore than doing something that the media will repeat over and over again?

You start with pigs blood on the ordnance. If that helps, next you could coat the outside of Humvees and transport trucks with bacon fat. Put a pig in the hold of commercial airplanes...well maybe that's a stretch.

Originally posted by: auraloffalwaffle
Originally posted by: starkiller
I believe it should be fair game to take advantage of those fears.

Originally posted by: Governor Tarkin
Fear will keep the local systems in line.
Interesting thought, but I think the situations are too different:
1. Tarkin is referring to using the Death Star against Imperial populations that are showing a level of disloyalty to the Empire. A better RL comparison would be if Bush decided to bomb Berkley University, UW-Madison or the home office of the New York Times.

2. The Death Star was a very indiscriminant weapon of mass destruction, destroying both friend and foe, guilty and innocent. I would not dare propose using anything like this on just anyone.
Post
#242467
Topic
Secret CIA prisons
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242467/action/topic#242467
Time
As C3PX said, "You have to understand how your enemy works."

Now, to the best of my knowledge, the islamic belief is that having come in contact with a pig [?and not being able to wash according to what the religion prescribes?], you cannot go to heaven.
The suicide bombers are often connected with the idea of getting 72(?) virgins upon their arrival in heaven when they die in service to Allah.
However, no heaven, no virgins.

C3PX also began to discuss something I wrote then deleted from my previous post...religion, or lack thereof.
There is a certain fervor to be gained from being religious. It drove the Crusades. It drove the Inquisition (not saying it was used for GOOD things). I think it even (to an extent) drove the discovery of the new world.
However, too many people are getting away from religion, or becoming numb to religion, or something along those lines...essentially, we don't care as much anymore OR we choose not to show that we care for fear of upsetting those around us ([sarcasm]thank you liberal interpretation of the Constitution[/sarcasm]).

The Cold War stayed cold because of MAD...Mutually Assured Destruction. The United States did not want to be destroyed, so it did not fire any weapons first. Same deal with the USSR.
This war is different because the radical islamic groups do not fear their own demise, in many cases they welcome it because of their religious beliefs. The closest possible modern-day comparison to what is going would be the Pacific island-hopping campaign of WW2, where the Japanese showed no fear of death in service to their emperor, resulting in thousands of needless casualties.
Post
#242249
Topic
Secret CIA prisons
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/242249/action/topic#242249
Time
First:
I seem to be in a minority in this thread, because if it saves lives to torture prisoners (within reason) for information, I consider that ample justification. Khalid Shiek-Mohammad (hope I spelled that all right) is obviously still alive if he was transferred to Guantanamo during the past week, which is a lot better than he deserves for being the "mastermind" behind 3000+ deaths on 9/11.

Second:
I am beginning to become annoyed by the idea that the US, in this particular conflict against terrorism, must be above using certain tactics. This is a double edge sword...
In a society where they use stoning, removal of hands and a great variety of methods we would consider barbaric, they see us as being weak for not using similar methods.
However, if we do resort to their methods, the US government, in the eyes of its own people, become no better than the terrorists, but we may actually cast fear into the hearts of our enemies.
As I said before, if it saves lives (particularly of our people and our allies), I can be more forgiving of the governments actions. I'm not saying break the rules of the Geneva Convention, I'm saying don't give into the fringe 10% of the population that are basically hippies wanting to be relevant again.

Third:
I know it is mearly an urban legend, but I continue to remember the story of Pershing when he was in charge of the Phillippines. The story about him executing muslim criminals with pigs-blood stained bullets and burying them in pits with the bodies of the same pigs.
Islam enstills fears upon its followers, just like any other religion. I believe it should be fair game to take advantage of those fears.