What made me unhappy today ?

[Naomasa298]

I apologise, I stand corrected. I assume you refer to the Achaemenid invasions of Greece, or the campaigns of Chandragupta Maurya? Or perhaps the Warring States period in China?

Total projected numbers:
Achaemenid invasion of Greece (Achaemenid side): 300,000
Battle of Red Cliffs (208-209 AD): 270,000 (Wu estimate) 850,000 (Wei claim)
Battle of Sekigahara (1600): 200,000 (campaign) 160,000 (battle)
Sieges of Osaka (1614-1615): 280,000 (winter) 210,000 (summer)

Having said that, the Grande Armée was larger still, at approximately a million men.

 

[Madman Starryteller]

Having said that, the Grande Armée was larger still, at approximately a million men.

It's a crazy number that modern armies can't even shake up most of the time.

And it's even crazier when you think about the technology level. They had to dispatch messages and information physically, imagine the network of riders and messengers! And the possibilities for spies!

 

[DLC]

The numbers became greater with each telling - some guy

 

[Clutch]

What made me unhappy today...this is a good place to dump this.

In the local news yesterday a couple men died in a car accident. Their car went off the road and rolled into a slough and they drown. It happened in just about the exact same spot where five teens died...exactly the same way, back in '86. They were out cruising around on a Friday night and lost control of the car. It was found the next morning, overturned, with little more than the rear wheels sticking up above water and five young bodies inside.

So of course being that this accident yesterday occurred in the same spot the online conversation quickly turned to that past accident that happened forty years ago this coming November. It had been a huge tragedy for the local community at the time.

It was only random chance that I was not in that car with them that night. Hell, its what kicked my alcoholism into high gear for the next several years.

I didn't know two of them, but Paul and Deanna, and Kenny...well, Paul was my very best friend, and Deanna was Paul's girl. I helped carry Paul's casket at his funeral, me and the rest of the gang.

The horrible thing about it all is that I can't really remember his face. Not like when we were hanging out and stuff like that, his normal face. No, they held a viewing at the funeral home a few days before we put him in the ground. I remember how long the line was that evening, kids from all over town come to see a dead body.

I wish I'd never gone. Paul's death face is forever burned into my mind, lying there in his casket. Back then I didn't know what happened to a body once the mortician gets ahold of it, so it didn't occur to me at the time that perhaps they'd sewn his mouth closed for some reason...perhaps. At the time though, lying there with his mouth slightly puckered, lips pursed, it looked all the world as if he was still lying there holding his breath, trying not to die, and that is the face I see when I think of him.

They're all dead now. None of us really survived that accident all those years ago. Mark died a couple years ago, him and I were the last two. Now I'm the only one left and now I can see all their faces so clearly, but Paul...the first one to go, is still holding his breath in my mind.

 

[Kiraann]

Personally, I’m not in favor of open casket funerals.

When my mother passed away in September, I was called early in the A.M. and immediately went to the assisted living center. She was still lying in the bed and I cannot get that image out of my mind. I was expecting it - she was in a coma for 3 days. Still…

 

[Naomasa298]

Personally, I’m not in favor of open casket funerals.

When my mother passed away in September, I was called early in the A.M. and immediately went to the assisted living center. She was still lying in the bed and I cannot get that image out of my mind. I was expecting it - she was in a coma for 3 days. Still…

I didn't look into my dad's casket for exactly that reason.

 

[ps102]

Personally, I’m not in favor of open casket funerals.

Same. It's low-key traumatizing. I attended my grandmother's open casket funeral and the image is still burned in my head. I was 22 at the time, and she was the first dead person I witnessed with my eyes and not through some photograph or computer screen. The image of her laying on the casket is also burned on my head.

Perhaps even harder was the burial itself. They covered her face with this religious Christian cloth with an eye on it, and then proceeded to pour olive oil on her face before they finally laid her down on the grave. It was a family one, so my grandfather and her son (who died before her) also rested there. At least, she is with them now. But witnessing all of that was incredibly difficult. I just couldn't believe that she was gone forever. It seemed impossible.

I still can't believe it sometimes. In some of my dreams, she is still alive, and it all seems so real. But I'm always hit with the same cruel reality when I finally wake up.

It was winter time, yet the day was sunny and warm. We had to take her to the village of origin where she was to be buried in the local graveyard. The sun never seemed to cease even as we drove across the island. I've always found some peace in the whole thing through that for some reason.

I actually have no idea how non-Greek funerals are done. But it seems we all have difficulty to share in the whole open casket thing.

 

[Madman Starryteller]

This is an alternative view from someone who did not see their dead loved one. But some days I would have liked to have seen my father, so that it could actually sink in better that he was truly dead and not just gone or disappeared. It may sound macabre to those of you who have seen your loved ones dead. But I think I would have had better closure back then if I had seen him.

Then again, his look would probably have scarred me a bit since they did not find him for many days. Nature would have transformed his face.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Southern funerals are open casket, especially the old fashioned one. I chose to attend the viewings for my parents at the funeral home, and insisted on doing so alone. My brother adamantly decided against it. Maybe because I am a biologist and had a good idea what to expect, the experience wasn't traumatizing. Upsetting, yes, because it was (if you'll pardon the expression) the final nail in the coffin of realizing they were truly gone. I think I'd have regretted avoiding the experience because for me it would've demonstrated a lack of inner courage. That throws no shade on my brother or anyone who choses otherwise. We're all different, and I am sorry for those who found the experience traumatizing.

The whole giant funeral with fancy coffin and long lines of limousines carrying mourners seems barbaric, outmoded, and opportunistic to me. People get guilted into spending ungodly amounts of money they often don't have on these events. My children have instructions to deprive the funeral industry of all but the cost of cremation. A ziplock bag will do fine for ashes until they get around to tossing them into the wind from the back of a speeding pick up truck on a favorite backroad, a fitting disposal that appeals to my sense of humor.

 

[Also]

Better a break than a torn ligament. Been years since my wife popped a tendon in her toe and even after surgery the thing ain't right. Kind of looks like an erection, if toes could get aroused.

I thought there was some kind of massage that tames such injuries

 

[Kiraann]

I thought there was some kind of massage that tames such injuries

I’m sure there are many terms that could arise, pardon the expression.

 

[JT Woody]

Me: i hope we have another snow day tomorrow [today]
Husband: you probably will. Doesnt make sense for yall to reopen on a Friday.

My job: GET BACK TO WORK, NERDS!

 

[Naomasa298]

Spent hours fixing some processes that weren't working because of a case of confirmation bias, and a lack of debugging tools. OK, my fault.

Then spent hours trying to write SQL on someone else's database while lacking any kind of documentation and having to work out relationships between data by actually working it out from the data itself.

And now some guy keeps quoting and pinging me on a forum (not this one) despite saying nothing related to anything I actually posted.

Urge to smoke rising. Urge to kill rising even faster.

 

[Casket]

And now some guy keeps quoting and pinging me on a forum (not this one) despite saying nothing related to anything I actually posted.

Better hope the guy in mention doesn't end up here and reading this or he might sign up to spy. No offence meant. Just telling something cautionary.

Urge to smoke rising. Urge to kill rising even faster.

We are all human. I had to come here to read threads to get my mind off getting "punched" in an online game despite no damage done as we(the avatars/toons) were in a neutral zone.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Urge to smoke rising.

Today was awful. Not sure what about it, but I was climbing the walls all day.

Remarkably, alcohol is one of the few things that makes the craving go away, which I never would have thought possible. That's, uh, not a viable substitute, unfortunately. And weirdly enough, real cigarette smoke smells intoxicating to me, but people and things that smell like cigarettes are repulsive. And it's not so much that I want a cigarette--as in lighting and inhaling a cylindrical piece of paper stuffed with tobacco--just that I want the squirrely, climb the walls, chew on a fence post, smash my nutsack with a croquet mallet feeling to go away.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

You could look for one of those climbing facilities geared toward rock climbers and get your exercise while climbing the walls.

Smashing your nutsack with a croquet mallet will undoubtedly cause everything to go away for a few minutes, but it does seem kinda extreme.

 

[Naomasa298]

Today was awful. Not sure what about it, but I was climbing the walls all day.

Remarkably, alcohol is one of the few things that makes the craving go away, which I never would have thought possible. That's, uh, not a viable substitute, unfortunately. And weirdly enough, real cigarette smoke smells intoxicating to me, but people and things that smell like cigarettes are repulsive. And it's not so much that I want a cigarette--as in lighting and inhaling a cylindrical piece of paper stuffed with tobacco--just that I want the squirrely, climb the walls, chew on a fence post, smash my nutsack with a croquet mallet feeling to go away.

Kind of the same. The idea of smoking is appealing, but the thought of actually doing it is repulsive. I wanted to smoke, so I was looking through online menus to see what was available, but the thought of putting one into my mouth, lighting it and inhaling felt disgusting, so I didn't. But the stress of today really got in the way.

It is fading over time though. I think you're about a week behind me, so give it a couple more weeks, hopefully it'll be a lot easier to say "meh" by then. No need to ruin a perfectly good croquet mallet.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Kind of the same. The idea of smoking is appealing, but the thought of actually doing it is repulsive. I wanted to smoke, so I was looking through online menus to see what was available, but the thought of putting one into my mouth, lighting it and inhaling felt disgusting, so I didn't. But the stress of today really got in the way.

It is fading over time though. I think you're about a week behind me, so give it a couple more weeks, hopefully it'll be a lot easier to say "meh" by then. No need to ruin a perfectly good croquet mallet.

Two days behind you, I think. Monday is the four week mark. At 9:57pm EST to be precise, not that I've been keeping track or anything.

Each week has been worse than the last. I'm actually looking back to the first few days of railroad spike headaches and sweaty palms with nostalgia.

 

[Naomasa298]

Each week has been worse than the last. I'm actually looking back to the first few days of railroad spike headaches and sweaty palms with nostalgia.

I had exactly the same thing last week so I sympathise.

One thing I definitely noticed was more vivid and complex dreams. I should note some of them down, a few might make good stories.

 

[Homer Potvin]

I had exactly the same thing last week so I sympathise.

One thing I definitely noticed was more vivid and complex dreams. I should note some of them down, a few might make good stories.

Same here. And fucked up bowels. Jesus H Crackers with the fucking bowels. Regular like a Swiss watch my entire life I was. As it turns out, nicotine is a great regulator of bowel motility (or is it modality?). Now I'm a Cuckoo Clock singing backwards.