Space Cadet

Mo's essay part 1 Some thoughts/facts about Ritalin and similar stimulant-based drugs based on my own experience and research: They work. The do not work forever. Eventually for some, they hardly work at all. They work better for people who DO NOT have ADD than people who do. They are a tool to help deal with ADD but not a cure. They change who you are inside. They help you focus on what you want to. Focusing on the right thing still takes self-discipline. They have side effects. Some of those are very bad. They include insomnia and monster headaches. They can be dangerous. They are easy to abuse. Abuse is bad. Abuse has killed. They're called "kiddy cocaine" for a reason. They are indeed a stimulant very similar in structure to cocaine. You can't use them if you have a cold and need to take cold medicine. Antihistamine reactions are not good. They make you think linearly: cause and effect. Creativity is not linear. Creativity can be very difficult on Ritalin. Should they be legalized? I don't know. I wouldn't have a problem with it myself. But then there would be big problems for others. No drug has been more tested than Ritalin. If it's safe for little kids to take it should be safe for responsible adults. And because it's a drug that reflects the priorities of modern society, it would be very useful in modern society. (Frankly, I'd kind of like to see it legalized because it would force people to call school boards who over diagnose and stigmatize ADD on their BS.) But the people who would want it most aren't responsible are they. Teenage brains haven't developed the ability to asses risk yet - that part of the brain develops around 17 or 20, I think. They're incapable of seeing how abusing it could hurt them. And it could hurt alot. Making it legal would mean 10 times as much of the stuff to go around. Hey, who needs to drink hand sanitizer to get high when you can get Ritalin cheap? I guess before I can form a solid opinion, I have 3 big questions that need answering (and they probably never will be, at least not in my lifetime): 1. Are we willing to change society or do we just want the quick fix with all of it's problems? 2. What's to stop bosses from forcing it down all their employees’ throats in the name of productivity? And on the other side of the coin, what's to stop it from being treated like steroids therefore stigmatizing the people who really need it? Think drug tests before SATs or any major exam. 3. (And most important) How many more Heath Ledgers are we prepared to deal with?

Ok, noonsun (sorry I'm terrible with names) asked me to share some of my thoughts on all this where I have ADD and was on Ritalin for a few years... and it turned into a monster essay because I'm frustrated and have a lot to say, so I'm posting it here in installments...

Righteous indignation knows no end date, apparently. :dozey: Why was this bumped?

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Vietnam part II. :tongue: (At least this time there isn't a draft- for now.) We shouldn't even all be here now. If the US had done it's job rather than find every shortcut it could to get out and march off to Iraq, we wouldn't be here. Instead it abandoned us Canadians to look after and die in the worst parts of Afghanistan almost alone and without much of any international recognition for it. (Canada has the highest casualty rate of any country there.) It made bad deals with warlords hoping they would keep the peace which we're now paying for in corruption. And when we were really starting to hurt, when we were throwing everything we had at the newly abandoned part of Afghanistan, it punished us for having nothing left to give for Iraq. :bomb: Well, it's about freaking time. The sad thing is, if this had happened 5 years ago, it might have worked. Now the Taliban knows they can wear us all down and outlast us. Now all the corruption has had time to spread and fester. Now the price is being paid for all the bad lazy shortcuts that were taken before. This has to happen. If it didn't, the worst of the extremists would take over in a heartbeat and we really would have to worry about more of the attacks that started this all. Pity there's been so much whining about how there will be terrorism if we don't let the government impose crap on us. We're numbed to it now. But in this case it's real. It probably won't work, but until everyone throws everything they have there, we can't say we tried. Any other way and we would be admitting defeat outright before we even had really tried. But now there's an accelerated end date. All they have to do is go lay low in their caves for a couple of years until the surge is over and we've withdrawn. And then they can walk out of hiding and take over unopposed. :(

:rolleyes::facepalm: Be careful who you include in that statement. :P Sounds to me more like Guy's fans have been warped by each other.

Those supposed to be some sort of parody of the life is good t-shirts? :dozey: I used to love the originals when they were really funny. Now every time I'm down in the states and can look for them, they're all of American flags. :facepalm: :angry:

It depends on why and where you have them I think. Hiccups are in part meant to dislodge food stuck in your throat, but it goes off for other reasons too... This is my theory, anyway: I think that if it's being caused in the breathing part of of your throat probably by a little kink there, taking as big of a breath as you can and holding it as long as you can will straighten everything out and make them stop. If it's in the eating part of your throat, drinking a big glass of water will work because the swallowing will untangle everything. If however the problem is a nerve/electrical thing- like on days you get the hiccups every couple of hours, the best solution is a spoonful of white sugar. Supposedly the sugar shorts out and resets the nerves in your throat as it dissolves going down.

:wtf: Dude.

Brian Eno doesn't have a sound so much as a philosophy. A way of working and thinking. ie. the oblique strategies. Now spend some time on their website trying to find your way around and tell me he hasn't had an effect.

^Ah, good. Basically the Daily Mail is for people whose math skills aren't so strong. And oh yeah, it's run by men who seem to think a women's place is pregnant and in the kitchen, rather than in the public eye or displaying independent thought. So it makes sense that they would have an issue with the idea of Gwyneth oh goodness no, working. At her job. ...I just can't believe they can find women willing to write this drivel for them.

^Exactly. I sense a lot of Brian Eno's indirect influence in the goings-on here. It makes sense. To be guided through that much pure creative energy and to try to fit it all into an established band and style like Coldplay... it makes sense that at least one of them would want to siphon some of it off in a different direction.

Good grief this thread title half gave me a heart attack. :P Uh, yeah... like I was saying in another thread, original sources are important in a story like this. The original story was indeed from the Daily Mail. They basically listed the tiny handful of things she had on the go for the next six months or so (8 or 9 weeks work broken up over many months- that's what? 2 months out of 6?!) and wondered if it might mean they wouldn't be able to spend every waking minute together. :freak: It's no different than how they normally arrange things. She usually takes roles with shorter shooting schedules and then Chris sometimes arranges touring and studio time around them. Sometimes they rent a place where she's staying so he can be there looking after the kids while she's at work. They have it a million times easier in that respect than most normal working couples who have to take opposite shifts because they can't afford child care and then really never spend time with each other except when they're both asleep. Of course the lowest denominator gossip blogs jump all over it and warp the speculation into facts. Nothing sells like bad news and something about a happy successful blond couple really gets under their skin. And for the record, the mail really wants to be a serious newspaper, but it also really wants to be a tabloid, so we usually get the worst, most pandering aspects of both. :sick2:

Urgh. I hope you're planning to take a good long nap when you get home. More than four hours of missed sleep can be hard to make up.

Heads up: I've added the official closing time to the first page: Deadline: Sunday December 6th at 7:00pm EST. (12:00am GMT) Please make sure your final lists have been submitted by that time and that they are linked to on the first page. If I have missed your list, please make sure I know!

The link only works once. If you have a problem during download you need to try again with a different email address.

And this is why paying attention to trashy tabloid stories rots your brain, mr. mc_squared. :P Personal drama aside, she has a wonderful voice, and people all over the world fell in love with it. Of course the ones who like more populist music are going to buy it.

Umm... Chris was barred from the studio last spring for a reason. I love him dearly but he does have a bit of trouble getting beyond his usual range. This is supposed to be something different.

"2009 was the year of the indie chick." (or something to that effect. stupid phone.) Oh my word yes. Finally. I was just looking at my list the other day and realized more than half were bands with women or solo women. It's like a whole huge group of them figured out that there were more satisfying routes to take than sounding like Joni Mitchell and ran with it. Thank goodness. The near absence of women on the scenes I like had been bugging me for a while. Oh, but nothing feels good in quite the same way as a well-stocked cd collection. You feel like listening to something and you know that whatever style you're in the mood for will be there. You pull 5 or 10 albums off their racks and lay them out, line them up, shuffle them around... and finally pick one. You can't do that on an ipod. Had a good summer job for the first time in years this summer and went a little crazy at the music store. The novelty of having so much choice still hasn't warn off. :nice: What's jjj?

Urp...triple post. Phone really doesn't like me. Well, at least someone took notice. :nice:

Urp double post. Phone doesn't like me.

I think it did that to them when they uploaded it- stretched out the video and stuttered the sound. The myspace one is much better. Or hey... maybe they meant to do that on purpose.

Be nice.... :P

Wow... the first part was beautiful. :nice: How long is this? :inquisitive: Oh, 9:16. Wow. :shocked2: Gah!... ET scared me so much as a kid. :uhoh: ...Is anyone else getting kind of a Donnie Darko vibe off the website and everything?

^Guess you're excited. Or you excited it. :freak:

puberty sucks :disappointed: :P