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Like Scepticalscribe I live alone, too, and if something were to happen to me people online probably wouldn't know about it since I don't have any relatives, forum friends from here or other forums who live all that near me. Family members don't really know that much about my online interests and participation in various forums so they'd just have to try and figure out from my bookmarks what is what and where I go online. I am on FB but that doesn't really help when one posts anonymously, as many of us do on online forums.

I, too, am concerned about SS and hope that she is OK, but this absence has been for over a week now, unannounced in advance, which is rather worrying. At first I had thought it were due to perhaps a problem with either her computer or her ISP, but either of those situations could be resolved fairly quickly. I think that had she gone on a trip, either for work or for pleasure, that she would've said something prior to leaving, and as well been able to from time to time touched base here as well. I miss her and I hope we see her back here again soon!
 
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I’m thinking about how great the cinematography and acting by Bates is in Dolores Claiborne. A 1995 blast from the past on a cold February Sunday afternoon. Also considered one of King’s best book/film adaptions.
 
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Clix Pix said:
Like Scepticalscribe I live alone, too, and if something were to happen to me people online probably wouldn't know about it since I don't have any relatives, forum friends from here or other forums who live all that near me. Family members don't really know that much about my online interests and participation in various forums so they'd just have to try and figure out from my bookmarks what is what and where I go online. I am on FB but that doesn't really help when one posts anonymously, as many of us do on online forums.

I, too, am concerned about SS and hope that she is OK, but this absence has been for over a week now, unannounced in advance, which is rather worrying. At first I had thought it were due to perhaps a problem with either her computer or her ISP, but either of those situations could be resolved fairly quickly. I think that had she gone on a trip, either for work or for pleasure, that she would've said something prior to leaving, and as well been able to from time to time touched base here as well. I miss her and I hope we see her back here again soon!
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Couldn’t agree more. I wonder in the past if other prolific posters (@mad jew comes to mind) announced their hiatus or just stopped posting.
Anyway come back soon @Scepticalscribe you are sorely missed.
 
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Clix Pix said:
Like Scepticalscribe I live alone, too, and if something were to happen to me people online probably wouldn't know about it since I don't have any relatives, forum friends from here or other forums who live all that near me. Family members don't really know that much about my online interests and participation in various forums so they'd just have to try and figure out from my bookmarks what is what and where I go online. I am on FB but that doesn't really help when one posts anonymously, as many of us do on online forums.

I, too, am concerned about SS and hope that she is OK, but this absence has been for over a week now, unannounced in advance, which is rather worrying. At first I had thought it were due to perhaps a problem with either her computer or her ISP, but either of those situations could be resolved fairly quickly. I think that had she gone on a trip, either for work or for pleasure, that she would've said something prior to leaving, and as well been able to from time to time touched base here as well. I miss her and I hope we see her back here again soon!
Click to expand...


Well not everyone's of a mind to pre-announce online that one's going on a vacation or work assignment really. We don't all live like around here where one can still find a note pasted on outside of a back door "I went out to Pittsburgh to see Anna, back Thursday... Nita if you need that sheet cake pan it's on kitchen table."
 
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If someone in a forum is in frequent communication with someone else on a forum, say, in a private subforum not available to all, or perhaps via PM, then they would have a modicum of privacy if using one of those ways of letting their friend(s) know that they are OK but won't be around on the forum for a while.... Just suddenly disappearing like this when the member is a very active poster of course is going to be noticed and cause some consternation and concern.
 
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I get it. Online relationships present some unique troubles. I had an online I talked to with some frequency in high school. We shared some stuff that was quite personal with each other. One summer he abruptly stopped messaging me. I continued to message him periodically over the course of a few months to ask what was going on, but he never responded. I told myself that he had his reasons for no longer wanting to speak to me and that I would leave him alone. A year went by and I suddenly thought of him and decided to search his name on Google. The first thing that came up was his obituary, showing that he had died at the time he had stopped messaging me, the previous summer. :(

Don't mean to make this darker than it needs to be; I just wanted to share my experience.
 
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Clix Pix said:
Like Scepticalscribe I live alone, too, and if something were to happen to me people online probably wouldn't know about it since I don't have any relatives, forum friends from here or other forums who live all that near me. Family members don't really know that much about my online interests and participation in various forums so they'd just have to try and figure out from my bookmarks what is what and where I go online. I am on FB but that doesn't really help when one posts anonymously, as many of us do on online forums.

I, too, am concerned about SS and hope that she is OK, but this absence has been for over a week now, unannounced in advance, which is rather worrying. At first I had thought it were due to perhaps a problem with either her computer or her ISP, but either of those situations could be resolved fairly quickly. I think that had she gone on a trip, either for work or for pleasure, that she would've said something prior to leaving, and as well been able to from time to time touched base here as well. I miss her and I hope we see her back here again soon!
Click to expand...

Yeah, no children/SO, and while she's talked about siblings a few times, it's not like they would - in the event something bad happened - take the time to spelunk around the person's notebook, click through bookmarks/history, take the time to post an update on sites like this. You know, vs. something like Facebook, where they wold probably post an update (and maybe even think to login to the person's account to set a status).

Heck, my wife and I are in really tight sync everyday, live/work/play together 24/7, and I seriously doubt she'd even think twice about following up on any forums I frequent to post an update.

FWIW, her last activity was Jan 23rd, liked a post of mine, then just sort of disappeared. It's not so much they she didn't announce it, but that over the last 10 days, she hasn't popped in one time to post, like a post, etc.
 
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Scepticalscribe has two brothers, one of whom is fairly close (both geographically and emotionally) and he may well be aware that she is an active participant on MR and that it is her only forum. I think she's on Twitter (no idea of her user name there, though) but not on FB. In the past I have seen situations where friends learn about a person's death through Facebook -- a family member or close friend is able to access the person's account and make a post explaining the situation, or sometimes if the family member is able to gain access to the person's email account(s) and get an idea of whom frequent correspondents are, they contact those people to let them know. In a situation where members of a forum don't know another member's real name, just their user name, it is more difficult to find out by running a Google search if something has happened.

I have a printed "cheat sheet" of my accounts, passwords and such, so that if something happened to me, my niece or whoever could look at that, which would be of some use. I stay logged-in on the forums in which I participate and I have them all bookmarked so that she could click on "MR," for example, and that would immediately get her to my MR account, where she could then progress from there.

Since I do live alone I don't bother to lock my computer; when I boot up, it immediately goes right to my desktop, no need to type in a password, so that would make things easier for my niece to get into the computer in the first place. No idea what SS does with regard to that, if she types in her PW when booting up, which she well may do since she is a frequent traveler and always takes her machine with her.

Guess there is nothing anyone here can do except wait to see when/if we hear from her or about her....
 
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I know I randomly disappear but most expect that from me.

I'm worried, she's not like me.

Sometimes in this online world, you take for granted the interaction you have with others. You get used to patterns, behaviors, ideas shared.

No matter if they were close to you, you feel that gap.

I hope she's doing fine, that she'll return soon.
 
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How much it sucks when you are waiting for a package from Amazon, the doorbell rings, and it's political canvassers!

Make it worse? Your package is actually there from Amazon on the ground, in front of the canvassers. Now both of you looking at it on the ground. The canvasser knows they've got your attention because they know you want your package, and it's probably why you really answered the door. It suddenly becomes that moment in the show when two people fighting see that one gun on the floor between them.

All because the delivery person just threw package on the stump & moved on, without ringing the doorbell to let me know the package was there.

🤬
 
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When I was hospitalised in March 2018 I continued to login and occasionally post (I think well I liked some posts) from my phone but didn't stop posting except for a few days at the start. I too am abit worried and I know there are a few posters I recall from the early days who have just kind of gone. I really hope SS is ok.
 
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decafjava said:
When I was hospitalised in March 2018 I continued to login and occasionally post (I think well I liked some posts) from my phone but didn't stop posting except for a few days at the start. I too am abit worried and I know there are a few posters I recall from the early days who have just kind of gone. I recall hope SS is ok.
Click to expand...


Shall I share more of my willingness to enter total state of denial on this matter?

So far I have resisted reading books like say Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism and the Radical Power of Unplugging. But if should venture into such a treatise sometime on the suspicion that my online existence has become an obstacle to my getting things done that I would prefer to do, then... I can see myself just disappearing off my social media platforms without any farewells.

After all, how weird would it be to pitch some post in here like the famous Dickens line that the author gave to Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities:

'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.' ​

-- but then to reappear in here after a couple weeks, saying

"well look, I gave it a shot but that's all behind me now, so where were we?"​


Not that I'd mean to do that, but it might just happen that way.

Of course at my age an abrupt departure from social media platforms becomes more likely as time goes on anyway. I do have a list of accounts and access for my heirs to manage as they see fit. I'd expect them though to be fairly business-like about just shutting them down. It's not that we don't have friends online, but we are all just pixels in the end after arrival at state of "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." There's no way our estate executors can understand cyber-relationships in their particulars so I'd not expect mine to do more than request an account deactivation. Otherwise I'd have them even trying to raise for my last farewell the long gone @maxsix whose creative polemics in PRSI sometimes carried lyrics almost worth setting as motets lol.

Well we'll all get a tongue lashing from @Scepticalscribe when she shows up again. It's none of our damn business why she's not here. Maybe she's taking a government post for awhile that requires she abandon all social media postings forthwith. "Forthwith" is one of those words that carries awesome weight when it precedes an employment agreement...

OK there will be a time I become seriously worried about Scribe's abrupt disappearance and failure to acknowledge even PMs. Meanwhile I'm signing up for another famous line, this one Scarlett O'Hara's from Gone With the Wind:

"I'm not going to think about that today."​
 
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JayMysterio said:
How much it sucks when you are waiting for a package from Amazon, the doorbell rings, and it's political canvassers!

Make it worse? Your package is actually there from Amazon on the ground, in front of the canvassers. Now both of you looking at it on the ground. The canvasser knows they've got your attention because they know you want your package, and it's probably why you really answered the door. It suddenly becomes that moment in the show when two people fighting see that one gun on the floor between them.

All because the delivery person just threw package on the stump & moved on, without ringing the doorbell to let me know the package was there.

🤬
Click to expand...

Here, the delivery person rarely bothers to knock when they've left an Amazon package for me. One time I was expecting something and kept looking out my peephole (I'm in a condo apartment) and saw nothing, had heard nothing.... Eventually I went to bed having forgotten about it after a while, and the next day got an email from one of my neighbors: "package in front of your door". She had seen it on her way to work early in the morning. Sure enough, there it was! Fortunately it was nothing that would be harmed by spending the night outdoors and the night wasn't bitterly cold, nor was it raining or snowing, thank goodness. The package was in a covered entryway/breezeway area anyway.

One time early into the holiday season I had a plumber here to deal with some problem in my kitchen sink; he was nearly done, needed to run out to his truck to grab some other tool, and when he opened my door to step outside, surprise, there was an Amazon package that had arrived in the meantime. He picked it up and smiling, handed it to me, saying "Merry Christmas!" and then headed out to retrieve whatever he needed from his truck.

So, Jay, what happened in your situation? Did the canvassers politely wait while you picked up your package and set it aside, or did they start asking you questions and all that?
 
JayMysterio said:
And some people wonder why there is a crackdown on 'therapy animals' being allowed.
EPkwyrnUEAANEVi.jpg
Click to expand...


I think the thinking is - "Sometimes having an animal companion helps" ? - LOL


the-right-girl.jpg
 
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decafjava said:
When I was hospitalised in March 2018 I continued to login and occasionally post (I think well I liked some posts) from my phone but didn't stop posting except for a few days at the start. I too am abit worried and I know there are a few posters I recall from the early days who have just kind of gone. I really hope SS is ok.
Click to expand...

This is what is concerning; SS has the tools to communicate with others from a train, an airport, a hospital bed....she more than likely would use her MBA, though, rather than her iPhone, to access MR, as it's an easier process and she is, ahem, as she herself admits, not the most techie person...... Don't most hospitals these days have WiFi internet access that can be used by patients as opposed to only cellular data access?
 
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Clix Pix said:
Here, the delivery person rarely bothers to knock when they've left an Amazon package for me. One time I was expecting something and kept looking out my peephole (I'm in a condo apartment) and saw nothing, had heard nothing.... Eventually I went to bed having forgotten about it after a while, and the next day got an email from one of my neighbors: "package in front of your door". She had seen it on her way to work early in the morning. Sure enough, there it was! Fortunately it was nothing that would be harmed by spending the night outdoors and the night wasn't bitterly cold, nor was it raining or snowing, thank goodness. The package was in a covered entryway/breezeway area anyway.

One time early into the holiday season I had a plumber here to deal with some problem in my kitchen sink; he was nearly done, needed to run out to his truck to grab some other tool, and when he opened my door to step outside, surprise, there was an Amazon package that had arrived in the meantime. He picked it up and smiling, handed it to me, saying "Merry Christmas!" and then headed out to retrieve whatever he needed from his truck.

So, Jay, what happened in your situation? Did the canvassers politely wait while you picked up your package and set it aside, or did they start asking you questions and all that?
Click to expand...
No, they wanted to have a conversation. They gave me the way out with a "Are there any issues you'd like to address?" I just went "Nope. All good, already made up my mind." I didn't bother to tell them it was for the person they were canvassing for, because I didn't want to open that avenue of conversation. They just looked at me, thanked me, and offered to hand the package to me.

The kick in the gonads though? I am expecting TWO packages, that was NOT the ONE I was impatiently waiting for.

That package had the time changed and arrived two hours later on my porch behind a pole. I went to Amazon's site to check on it, and it said "Was left in a secure area".

:oops: An open porch behind a pole, without bothering to ring the doorbell, is a "secure area"?!!!

Luckily it was an inexpensive headphone amplifier that I wanted to dip my toes in trying, so it wouldn't have put me out much. But I had been impatiently awaiting it, to drive some new headphones I got, and wanted to start breaking them in.

🤬😂
[automerge]1580681171[/automerge]
mikzn said:
Sometimes having an animal companion helps?

View attachment 892032
Click to expand...
No. 😂
 
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LizKat said:
Shall I share more of my willingness to enter total state of denial on this matter?

So far I have resisted reading books like say Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism and the Radical Power of Unplugging. But if should venture into such a treatise sometime on the suspicion that my online existence has become an obstacle to my getting things done that I would prefer to do, then... I can see myself just disappearing off my social media platforms without any farewells.

After all, how weird would it be to pitch some post in here like the famous Dickens line that the author gave to Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities:

'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.' ​

-- but then to reappear in here after a couple weeks, saying

"well look, I gave it a shot but that's all behind me now, so where were we?"​


Not that I'd mean to do that, but it might just happen that way.

Of course at my age an abrupt departure from social media platforms becomes more likely as time goes on anyway. I do have a list of accounts and access for my heirs to manage as they see fit. I'd expect them though to be fairly business-like about just shutting them down. It's not that we don't have friends online, but we are all just pixels in the end after arrival at state of "ashes to ashes, dust to dust." There's no way our estate executors can understand cyber-relationships in their particulars so I'd not expect mine to do more than request an account deactivation. Otherwise I'd have them even trying to raise for my last farewell the long gone @maxsix whose creative polemics in PRSI sometimes carried lyrics almost worth setting as motets lol.

Well we'll all get a tongue lashing from @Scepticalscribe when she shows up again. It's none of our damn business why she's not here. Maybe she's taking a government post for awhile that requires she abandon all social media postings forthwith. "Forthwith" is one of those words that carries awesome weight when it precedes an employment agreement...

OK there will be a time I become seriously worried about Scribe's abrupt disappearance and failure to acknowledge even PMs. Meanwhile I'm signing up for another famous line, this one Scarlett O'Hara's from Gone With the Wind:

"I'm not going to think about that today."​
Click to expand...

I think you're right about the tongue-lashing we'll get..... LOL! And, yes, PMs have gone unanswered, which raises the index level of concern up another notch or two.

I also think the right quote from GWTW is "After all, tomorrow is another day....."
 
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On my mind since I'm not watching "the big game" and decided against watching Netflix either: which of three in-hand books of the 21 John D.MacDonald Travis McGee series paperbacks to re-read. That series has books each having the name of a color in the title. So here are my options

1. Pale Gray for Guilt​
2. The Empty Copper Sea​
3. The Green Ripper​

I rousted these not long ago from a bin of last-minute brought-along stuff from my city place back when I was leaving it forever... and wavering between culling and taking a few things I'd already stashed in the living room with a last tip and note for the porter: "sell or throw out, you decide."

Well I decided impulsively on my way out of the place for the last time to rescind that invitation regarding the Travis McGee books and tossed them into my last bin of take-alongs, so they ended up here. At purchase they were probably 50c finds uptown in the sidewalk bins of a bookstore near Columbia University. I remember them as fine escape literature if not exactly standard noir detective novels.

Anyway they're here now so I'm gonna kick back and start re-reading one tonight. Always liked MacDonald's characterization of McGee... he's mostly a good guy and mostly honest with himself, but when he gets confused, well that's what his sidekick Meyer exists for I guess.. to help him sort himself out.

I think it was @chown33 once said MacDonald's writing is great but dark, and that's a fair summary. The novels aren't potboilers by any means. Wish they'd drop the Kindle price on the series bundle though; I'm at the age of liking to be able to change up fonts and their sizes on assorted gear. I could go for that bundle (but not at that price). At the right price I might even cancel my newspapers and rely on Travis McGee and his buddy Meyer to help me escape entire weeks of the rest of 2020.
 
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Underfloor heating installation starts today. So I’ll be heading to work late. Not an ideal start to the day, but our VPN doesn’t work with the rooter where I’m staying, so working from home isn’t an option.
 
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