The Not Happy Thread

Bummer. Time to start a new book club. How do the other members feel?

And/or complain to the bookstore owner. Unless the new coordinator is a relative, you might just get your club back.

 

You should tell us how you really feel, so we don't get confused.

Can you throw a coup? Maybe bring diet Entman's cakes to the next club meeting and put them in a regular Entman's box?

 

Yeah, I've thought about that. A couple of them do feel the way I do. Most of them agree with me (at least, that's the sense I got, since they all voted unanimously for what I had proposed/pointed out) and when I say something a lot of them nod their heads and agree. But, at the same time, most of them weren't willing to speak up, and aren't going to be willing to go out of their way to make any kind of change or cause anybody any upset.

It's tough because the bookstore is a convenient location, and a lot of people want to support the bookstore, etc.

I'm not sure what would happen if I went to the bookstore owner. I don't know that it's worth potentially stirring up this much trouble. Their position could very easily be that if I don't like it, I don't have to come, and that would be a perfectly valid position for them to have. I'll probably have to wait a little bit to see how this plays out. Mostly it's frustrating because I feel like not just I, but the group as a whole, is just being completely ignored. Some might eventually stop attending, or just attend less often. Some will probably keep coming for a long time, maybe lamenting how the club has changed, but not enough to get really upset or do anything about it. They could potentially get new members who prefer the way the club is going.

It's hard to find a good book club, and the location is so convenient -- I'll be sad if I have to go that route.

 

Do they have Skype book clubs?

 

We could start one here, and have JJ and Ginger in it.

 

First book, "50 Shades of Grey."

 

After that, some Chekov.

 

I'll just listen.

 

I'll sit in the back and read manga.

 

Scheme behind the scenes. Bring about her downfall! Usurp her throne!

 

Licorice Tea...

 

It pisses me off that it takes so long for things to move through trials in the medical community. Today there was an article:

http://news.yahoo.com/blood-test-mi...1N3VzBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDM4NF8x

Great right? People who are found to more than likely to get Alzheimer's can start early treatment for the disease...BUT NO!

When I saw this on the news, they said clinical trials are only about TWO YEARS away...WTF TWO YEARS?!??!!?

 

Yeah, I have remind myself that this is just book club, and it is supposed to be stress-relieving, not stress-causing. I need to do a better job of letting go, and just not going if the book is not interesting to me and wasn't even voted on by the group. I've only missed two meetings in my whole time there -- one was the day after my son was born and I was still in the hospital. The other one, I was in another country.

Yeah, well, unfortunately it takes a while to make sure that the trials are as safe as they can be and that they're scientifically valid. If they didn't put in proper precautions before clinical trials took place, there could be very bad results. It sucks, but it's hard work. It's more amazing to think about the progress we've made in say, the last 100 years -- even as late as about 1920, the germ theory of disease wasn't even broadly accepted. Hospitals were basically places where you went to be made comfortable until you either died or were able to somehow recover by being able to rest.

 

...but all the while U.S. citizens go to other countries, when they can't get the treatments in the U.S.

 

In the early days of Act Up the members strongly advocated for approval of anything with hope (Dallas Buyers Club). But a decade later there was a split in the group and a change in some people's desires for good clinical trials. Hope does you no good if it is baseless. HIV sufferers began to look for drugs with actual promise and not just drugs backed by wishful thinking and that meant drugs backed by good research and clinical trials.

There needs to be a balance, sure. When some drugs have a good chance of being life saving they are often fast tracked and given early approval. But one thing people often forget, it's risk vs benefit, not benefit vs no benefit. You can't be sure you aren't making a condition worse without good research.

 

That's a bit of a crappy situation...What if you just take this one on the chin, read author A (the one that nobody wanted to read), and then afterwards it will hopefully go back to normal again?

If the issue with the emails and the voting is really getting on your nerves, do you think she'd be open to discussing it further? Just wondering if there has been much tension or complaining been done about it so far...If you are on bad terms with the co-ordinator you may have no other option but to go somewhere else, but that would probably be a last resort type of thing

 

This is exactly why I get so annoyed at the media. You constantly see headlines trumpeting that a miracle cure has just been 'discovered' and it turns out it's years away, if at all.

It's just the media looking for a story to sell their publications, but unfortunately a story like this gets sufferer's hopes up for nothing. I wish there was some regulation, that media can't present a story about a medical 'cure' unless it's actually ready to be implemented. They need to make it clear that their subject is just a study, or a theory.

It's soul-destroying to read about a cure or infallible test, only to find it's still only a twinkle in some researcher's eye.

 

That's essentially what I've been doing, with the last time an author was forced on the group and again when we read a book that not very many people had voted for.
The weird thing with the email is that's what I thought had happened. Then she said people wanted bcc emails, then she said she didn't want a whole bunch of emails, then she said she didn't have time to do it all. So I offered to do it, but that was rejected. I was hoping by now we'd be back to "normal" but instead it only seems to be getting worse.

 

I can't stand my car being broken down. I have to rely on a rides places from a friend and he is SOOOOOOOOO unreliable. I mean I don't use him for rides, we do stuff for each other. Yesterday he had to take his daughter home and needed $20 to take her back for gas money. I let him borrow it despite the fact I'm not exactly Rich Uncle Pennybags. I've got somewhere to go where I can make some money, he said he would give me a ride, and now he is avoiding me today.

 

Because of the George W Bush solution to global warming sunset is now after 7:00. Sure it's a later sunrise in the morning, but who fucking cares? Going back to sleep in any case.

But now the afternoon drags into infinity, as concentration ceases to be an option. All so some fucking business buildings could save on their electric bills.

 

Been there. Since last September until yesterday. It sucked big floppy donkey wiener, and I had to pretty much bike everywhere. Oh well, at least it was healthy and everything. But now our car is fixed, finally. Cost a pretty penny, though

 

Went to an Italian restaurant last night, and had a portion of tiramisu that had at least a whole espresso shot in it. I didn't get to sleep until 4am. I also didn't manage to write anything coherent. Now the day's kicking off and I feel hung over. Can you get a hangover from tiramisu?

 

Well, yes, but last time that happened to me it wasn't the expresso that caused it! It was homemade, and the person that made it SOAKED it in alcohol. Yikes.

 

That's a good point @jannert, I can't say that I tasted any alcohol, but the whole cake was so full of coffee, it might have overpowered the flavour. On the plus side, it was a very nice cake.

 

At least what you remember of it!