Lol I just happend to scroll up and see the top post. This page begins with a drinking gif and ends (so far) with a kidney transplant.
Yep, that's how they do kidney transplants - they don't take the old ones out, and just slap a new one in. Some people, who have had more than one kidney transplant, have four or five kidneys! (I didn't know any of this either before I went on the transplant list)
Naomasa, glad you are back home after surviving quite an ordeal. I have both kidneys but one is atrophied, My father and aunt had the same condition. Found out I had a single functioning kidney during a scan for another condition. Long may it function.
Wow! That sounds like a trial by fire. Well done for pulling through - the force must be strong in this one. I hope it's a smoother sea from here on in.
@ Naomasa298 Glad to hear that you are back at home and posting on WF. I hope you have a speedy recovery.
Nope, scout's honour! When kidneys lose function, they just atrophy as @Catriona Grace says above, and they just shrink down to a sort of nub so they don't bother taking them out.
Fear not good Duck, soon you'll be able to get it replaced by the latest AI. Just a little chip implant.
I wonder where this kidney came from? Because lately, the sun's been burning. And blood... I must have blood... Alternatively, chocolate chip cookie dough Ben & Jerries will also do.
I'm happy when I find a new video game that entertains and calms me, bringing me joy. Today: Final Fantasy XV.
Sometime about 8-9 years ago, as I was plodding through a dull, mindless day at work, some muse dropped a perfect song chorus into my head. I was ecstatic! It was genuinely beautiful, with a gorgeous melody and meaningful, memorable words. The only problem was, I could never find the rest of the song. I've picked at it on and off over the years, but every attempt just sounded artificial and forced. Last night, I woke up at 4:30 AM with a verse in my head. It's not complete, just the start, but it's right. I have the way forward.
You must sacrifice to the muses. Naked, under the full moon, with a dead cat and a stump full of rain water. Ok, the last 2 are optional, they come from Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, I don't remember which. But they sound suitably folksy and sacrificial.
@AntPoems —What book did I read a few years ago that recommended doing a little ritual and actually sacrificing something? It was about something like art, or living the creative life. The ritual I remember involved a hamburger I believe was in the person's refrigerator. He decided to give up fast food for like a month or something (that's the real sacrifice), and he used the hamburger as a symbol for it. I can't for the life of me remember the book or the author, so I'll try to reconstruct this as well as I can. I was thinking vaguely about it when I wrote that above. The ritual is sort of half-mock or half-silly, but in some ways it's serious. You put on some item of ritual clothing you would never ordinarily wear to mark off this moment and this act as something sacred rather than mundane. For instance maybe you drape a towel around your shoulders like a robe. And while you're putting it on, you do it in a ritual way. Which can just mean you go into a more serious mode, or you say certain 'magic' words ("Abracadabra, alakazam" maybe? Or "Hey there, hi there, ho there, we're as happy as can be.") Now, the entire time you're wearing the sacred garment, you're in ritual mode, and everything you do has sacred meaning. You don't say or do anything ordinary until after the ceremony is over. Doing things this way, even if you're using silly words, can have a powerful effect on your thinking, and that's exactly what it's meant to do. The ritual can involve things like chanting, walking in a circle three times in one direction, singing or doing a little dance. And you make your dedication to the muse or to whoever or whatever you're honoring. For example, you might thank the muse for giving you inspiration those two times, and you then dedicate a sacrifice to her. You might want to look up the real muses and decide on one (whichever one was specifically for music, I believe that's Calliope), or you might make up a name. The sacrifice needs to be something that's going to be a little difficult to give up, and you have to really mean it. Then you bury or burn or otherwise symbolically dispose of a proxy—some symbol that represents what you're giving up to the muse. And you do that in some ritualistic way as well. Maybe you wrap it very deliberately in red paper while chanting or something. Maybe skewer it with a toothpick or draw a symbol on it with a sharpie or a ketchup bottle, I don't know. Then you do the sacrifice on it, and then you wrap up the ceremony. Maybe you walk in three more circles, but in the opposite direction now, to undo what you did to create the sacred space. Maybe you have some closing word, something akin to an Amen, or a 'So be it'. Then you remove the robe in a ritualistic manner and step outside of the sacred are, which should be in a place where you don't normally hang out, at least in a different room that you don't often go into or something. All of this is to create a sense that this is now sacred ground for the duration of the event. You don't move or talk or behave in the ordinary ways while you're in sacred space. If you must do it in a space where you normally live, then at least ritually purify it first. Maybe let the chanting and walking in circles be that. And maybe light candles that you only use for the ceremony, or burn incense. The deed is done now, and once you've returned to normal space, you're no longer in touch with the sacred (until you enact the rituals again). But what's been done is powerful, and you must live up to it now or you'll ruin the power of the ritual. You follow through on your promise, whatever it was. If you're unable to, you should re-enter the ritual space and make amends for your failure, with apologies and hopefully a new sacrifice, maybe a bigger one, and this time you don't let yourself slip up. These are psychological tricks that carry real power, even if you're mostly just playing around. In fact I believe the book was by a psychologist come to think of it. He had his patients do these rituals and they apparently got some excellent results from it.
I have been so busy with my university course for weeks so I hadn't written a single thing. I had more time since the past few days but I still had trouble actually writing. Today, I finally finished a short story I'm happy with. It gave me quite the fight but I did it. The world feels right again. I think that me being 'out of practise' had something to do with it. Perhaps I should try my best to not let this happen again.
I work with someone who stutters at my new job. I told him that he is the first stutterer i've met as an adult (outside of a group) and that its less lonesome now. He said that he's never met another stutterer as an adult either
Made blackberry jam yesterday for Christmas giving. Happy to report that it came out good. I struggled some because I'm woefully out of practice.
I'm off until the 2nd. That's 10 days off! Hooray! Now let me slip over to the Not Happy Thread to talk about what my next paycheck is going to look like, lol.
Christmas Eve in the UK. Mid-evening -- a time of high energy demand -- and we are currently producing over 50% of our electricity from wind. that's pretty cool.
