craigb

*Disclaimer!* I am NOT a pharmacist (the actual profession that studies drugs and their interactions) and anything I say that is misconstrued as medical advice is all on you!* 😉 That said, my father was one of the first to be put on Gabapentin (aka Neurontin) when it was first being tried for other reasons back in the 1990's (my father had a complex case of temporal lobe epilepsy and manic depression). It was during this time that my mother underwent major cancer surgery and massive chemotherapy (she was one of only two people to survive the level and type of cancer she had for that year throughout the entire United States). However, all that chemo torched her nerve endings and my father's doctor couldn't stop extolling the virtues of Gabapentin to aid neuropathy. At the time, there were no reports of any negative side-effects, so she ended up on the maximum dose (seven pills a day) for 20 years! So, as part of trying to get all of her meds reduced about two years ago (she's 91 now), I read a lot of studies and reports, including several on Gabapentin. So, here's the upshot: Compared to the vast majority of drugs out there, Gabapentin is still one of the most useful and safest. The dementia issues all occurred in patients who took large dosages over long periods of time and, as my mother is evidence to, it still doesn't affect everyone. From everything I've heard and read, it really works great for neuropathy, but the key is to slowly reduce the dosage as the nerve endings repair. My suggestion to you is to try and find the reports and keep questioning your doctors. It might help you in the short term! Side-note: My mom is now in long term care as of late last month after a few E.R. visits, a hospital stay and a lot of attempted rehab starting in early November. One upshot of this is that they've removed a lot of grains and sugar from her diet and she just dropped below the supposed diabetic line for the first time in decades. She's never been far above, but she also wouldn't stop eating cheap waffles with pure sugar syrup for breakfast everyday either! Remember, there isn't much of anything with your body that YOU can't fix! Let's just say I have far less respect for medical doctors than I used to and a lot of evidence (including personal) about what's really possible. Good luck! 🙂👍

Sizzle Pie is an awesome pizza place. (I'm sure the rumor that they use beaver as a topping is completely unfounded.😜)

Rulers too! 😜

N00b: "Well, there's only so many chords you can play!" Joe Pass: "Hold my beer." 😁

I thought he was a no electricity Bill, no? 😁

I have this strange desire to visit! 😁

Damn Bill! If there's a Karma bank somewhere, it owes you a TON of good stuff! (Which you will hopefully start getting once you get well and move to a state that's above sea-level!) Stay strong Bill!

Yikes! Certainly NOT what I'm looking for... Plus, once I can afford to, I've got custom house plans I'd like to use that will definitely have parts where permit-checkers won't be allowed! Heh...

I don't have an Instagram account, but was able to see the page. I hacked out the image (actually using F12 to bring up the Developer window - works with Chrome in Windows 10, not sure about other systems). Here's the image:

*Whew!* Considering our general age-range here (5-year old moderators not-withstanding), I first was worried that you were going to have to have surgery Glyn! 😮 I wonder how many routings and effects we use only because we think we should even when we don't hear any difference! 😉

FWIW - Always remember that most of those extra cores and extra RAM might not be needed or used NOW but, as always happens, programmers will advance their stuff and, then, you'll need it! 😉

Nope! Not going to do it. Someone else can post Sister Sledge, but not me! 😆 Instead, I'm going down THIS rabbit hole! 😏

He definitely looks like he's nailed a few mixes! 🙄 The question is, what kind? Poodle/Schnauzer? Dachshund/Pitbull??? 😆

Yes. They were ready. Ready to be powerless and waterless. 😆

Ironically, the original Hollywood IS in Portland!

Now you can actually create a virtual machine from most PC's then install one of those old operating systems and play those games from that. 🙂

I mean, c'mon! This was the morning sunrise I used to see from the deck outside my bedroom!

I love this area, but too many of the people are bat-guano crazy! Things have gone downhill a lot since I first moved up here in 2003... I, along with a few friends, have been researching areas in the Pacific Northwest to move to that have the parts we like, but without the lunatics (and their excessive trash, illegal drugs, crime and graffiti). Right now, Sandpoint Idaho is looking really good, plus I've recently found out that there are friends of friends already living there that are completely willing to help answer any questions I have! If I move, it would be my first home not on the Left Coast (Kalifornia, AreWeGone? & Washington).

Definitely! Some of those simple 2D, one screen games were awesome! Crystal Caves, Commander Keen, Joust, all the Mario and similar types... On the flip-side, I eventually want to get into VR game development, but with Myst-like games. Immersive with puzzles and awesome background music.

Ironically, that's one of the main reasons I stopped playing games. Except for an Atari system back in the 70's and a Playstation that was only used to keep my friend's kids busy while we were in the music studio, I never played console games. I only played on PC's and, one of the biggest advantages my friend and I had was our skill with a Kensington Expert Mouse trackball (see below). We would use these at work too (we were both programmers for Verizon Wireless through Accenture) and could zip to any area of the screen in milliseconds!). I still have a few buried in storage...

Now THAT'S my gaming time history! Back when I lived in Irvine Kalifornia, I used to run the second-most popular game servers on the West Coast for Quake, Half-Life and Counterstrike (called "N2O's Gas House"). I had a dedicated T1 line and five separate stations for my friends to use (I lived half-a-mile from work, so we'd all go over to my place at lunch or after work to either play in my music studio or play online games). At one time, there was a database of all Quake 1 players and I was in the top-25 out of over 340,000 (my game name was, like the servers, "N2O" which is the chemical formula for Nitrous Oxide or laughing gas - my tag line that I could spray in-game was "You'll die laughing!"😁). We played on two League Republic teams for Counterstrike and, eventually, ended up taking the first and second-place positions before quitting. Being right next to the server REALLY helps your ping! We always had to film our matches for the referees because whiney little punk kids half our age kept thinking we MUST be cheating - LOL! Needless to say, we didn't have to rely on running a communication server when we're all sitting in the same room. One of my friends created a popular set of bots for Quake and I had two Half-Life maps that I made that got a lot of playing time (one called High Dive and another was a very compact version of a 2fort2 map). Those were good times... 😊

Reminds me of the time I decided to become an archeologist! My career ended up in ruins...

To be fair, the Coffee House has always been the place where topics go to become buffoonery. That's its purpose! We all need to let off steam (especially now). That said, similar to the lack of a hardware forum like we used to have, it would be really nice to have a separate forum for those trying to find others for real endeavors (e.g., "I need a drummer," "I need a singer," "I need someone for album artwork," "I need someone for liner notes."). This would be similar to those bulletin boards at Guitar Center and, by its very nature, would avoid what happens down here. 🙂