What You've Done Today - We do not remember days, we remember moments

[ShadySands]

Man, I'd have gone to the doctor yesterday and you should go tomorrow. I know you love good food and we need to get you back to that. Think of the food thread if not yourself. The people need you.

[Gorth]

Maybe a rabies variant? Instead of resenting water, you started resenting food? Please tell if the urge to bite people suddenly comes over you!

 

edit: Iirc, the rabies symptom is called hydrophobia, no idea what the food equivalent would be

[Gfted1]

Tapeworm from truck stop hotdog? Or would that make you hungrier?

[Azdeus]

10 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Man, I'd have gone to the doctor yesterday and you should go tomorrow. I know you love good food and we need to get you back to that. Think of the food thread if not yourself. The people need you.

Mmm... Ketchup...

[Keyrock]

8 hours ago, Gorth said:

Please tell if the urge to bite people suddenly comes over you!

In that case I've had rabies my entire life. 

I wrote the weight loss thing as a joke, but it's also true, I've been losing weight steadily, roughly a pound a day. There's a small part of me that kind of hopes this lingers for another week. As a guy in my late 40s it's hard keeping weight off and even harder losing it, plus it gets harder every year. Another week of this, assuming I continue dropping weight at roughly the same pace, would put me at a really good weight that I haven't been at in close to a decade. Like I wrote before, silver lining.

 

[Hurlshort]

Just be careful with the weight loss. It's great to lose weight, but it can also be a sign of other health concerns. Have you been doing anything active to work up an appetite? Burning some calories might help increase the desire to replenish them.

[Keyrock]

40 minutes ago, Hurlshort said:

Just be careful with the weight loss. It's great to lose weight, but it can also be a sign of other health concerns. Have you been doing anything active to work up an appetite? Burning some calories might help increase the desire to replenish them.

I'm completely fine and normal in every other way. I'm weight lifting like I always have, going for bike rides, I have energy, I'm active. The only thing "wrong" with me is that I have no desire to eat. 

[Amentep]

10 hours ago, Gorth said:

Maybe a rabies variant? Instead of resenting water, you started resenting food? Please tell if the urge to bite people suddenly comes over you!

 

edit: Iirc, the rabies symptom is called hydrophobia, no idea what the food equivalent would be

Trofiphobia?

59 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

I'm completely fine and normal in every other way. I'm weight lifting like I always have, going for bike rides, I have energy, I'm active. The only thing "wrong" with me is that I have no desire to eat. 

I think loss of appetite in general is called Anorexia (not to be confused with Anorexia Nervosa) but is usually a symptom of other things.  I would think as long as you're getting enough calories when you do eat and everything is going through your digestive system fine and you're also not dehydrated, the only worry would be if it persists since weight loss is tied to some cancers and other illnesses (but also to more benign sources like stress and reactions to CBD).

[LadyCrimson]

@Keyrock  Maybe you're in the throes of video-game-diet syndrome?  

Jokes aside, if the weight loss is simply coming from eating a bit less then usual, I wouldn't be overly concerned yet. Something else that can come with aging - obviously varies person to person - can be phases of "eating is too much bother" or less interest in food as a kind of mental entertainment, so to speak. Although I don't think I've ever had a sense of feeling like eating food itself is offputting, myself. I usually just feel like it's not worth the bother to do the whole process of making food/sitting around eating. The act of eating isn't giving me any emotional enjoyment at times, so I'm totally not motivated to do it, even if the belly is grumbling. I end up kind of forcing myself to eat when it happens.

That said, if eating is somehow physically discomforting and/or your weight loss feels disproportional to caloric intake and activity levels, a check-in with docs is always advisable. Or if it continues for too long etc.

Edited April 5 by LadyCrimson

[majestic]

I just sent my declaration of my intent to leave my congregation to the responsible district administration. It is a silly bureaucratic hurdle the churches demanded which requires certain documents to "prove" that you are indeed a part of the congretation you want to leave. The official justification is data protection, because leaving your congretation requires the disclosure of personal information to said congregation.

And we would not want to disclose any personal information to the wrong congregation, would we?

Yes, that justification is about as silly as it sounds. You cannot just leave your congretation by talking to them directly for no other reason than to introduce extra bureaucratic hoops to jump through in order to deter as many people as possible from leaving a certain Church with a proclivity for child abuse. At the end of the day, this is about money, as both major Christian Churches in Austria and Germany can (legally) collect money from their congregation members, colloquially known as church tax, it is a required tithe that goes back to laws made by the good shepard, The Führer (no, really, the church tax really goes back to laws passed by the Nazis).

With the government removing Good Friday for us Protestants as public holiday a while back and the Church now wanting a membership fee in excess of what is tax deductible, it no longer makes sense to be a part of the Protestant Church.

Edited April 7 by majestic

[Hurlshort]

Damn, that wouldn't fly in the US. Other than salvation, what are the benefits of being part of a congregation? Do you get to deduct the membership fee and tithes from your taxes?

[Gfted1]

That was an informative read to me due to some interesting differences. Now mind, I only go to church when someone is baptized or buried, so things might have changed, but around these parts: you can pop in/out of any church you want (you dont have to join them), theres nobody collecting data about who is a memeber of which chuch (unless you get baptized or buried there), they pass around a basket during mass and you just toss some money in (Iirc, the tithing should be ~10% of your income) but this is voluntary. Also, for clarity, is there no separation of church and state in your country?

[Sarex]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

I just sent my declaration of my intent to leave my congregation to the responsible district administration. It is a silly bureaucratic beaurocratic hurdle the churches demanded which requires certain documents to "prove" that you are indeed a part of the congretation you want to leave. The official justification is data protection, because leaving your congretation requires the disclosure of personal information to said congregation.

And we would not want to disclose any personal information to the wrong congregation, would we?

Yes, that justification is about as silly as it sounds. You cannot just leave your congretation by talking to them directly for no other reason than to introduce extra bureaucratic hoops to jump through in order to deter as many people as possible from leaving a certain Church with a proclivity for child abuse. At the end of the day, this is about money, as both major Christian Churches in Austria and Germany can (legally) collect money from their congregation members, colloquially known as church tax, it is a required tithe that goes back to laws made by the good shepard, The Führer (no, really, the church tax really goes back to laws passed by the Nazis).

With the government removing Good Friday for us Protestants as public holiday a while back and the Church now wanting a membership fee in excess of what is tax deductible, it no longer makes sense to be a part of the Protestant Church.

I thought that was only in Germany, but seeing how far back it goes I guess it makes sense.

5 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Damn, that wouldn't fly in the US.

Yeah, it the US they at least need to show up on TV and ask for it.

Edited April 7 by Sarex

[ShadySands]

33 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Yeah, it the US they at least need to show up on TV and ask for it.

If their god wants them to have a new yacht/mansion/jet then who am I to question that? Supply side Jesus saves and takes 10% right off the top 

[BruceVC]

On 4/5/2024 at 6:30 PM, Keyrock said:

I'm completely fine and normal in every other way. I'm weight lifting like I always have, going for bike rides, I have energy, I'm active. The only thing "wrong" with me is that I have no desire to eat. 

Maybe you sleep walking at night and gorging on food then? 

Have you checked  the fridge and food stocks in the morning?

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Damn, that wouldn't fly in the US. Other than salvation, what are the benefits of being part of a congregation? Do you get to deduct the membership fee and tithes from your taxes?

The tithe is tax deductible, but only up to 400€ per year. As for the "benefits", well, you can have a proper Christian burial, receive the sacraments, have a church wedding and participate in communion. That is for non-orthodox Christians Churches, and I have no experience with congregations of other faiths. All for the tiny price of 1% of your yearly base income before income tax (your yearly gross income after all prior deductions, i.e. social social security, tax free income and payments specifically exempted from income tax, like our variants of a 401k).

You have to calculate your tithe yourself, but if you don't, then the church will collect an estimate based on sex, age and education. Whether or not it is benefitial to let the church estimate your tithe depends on how much you earn above or below average. I have let the church estimate my tithe for years now, as they were generally way off the mark (to my benefit, obviously). How very Christian of me, huh?

3 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

That was an informative read to me due to some interesting differences. Now mind, I only go to church when someone is baptized or buried, so things might have changed, but around these parts: you can pop in/out of any church you want (you dont have to join them), theres nobody collecting data about who is a memeber of which chuch (unless you get baptized or buried there), they pass around a basket during mass and you just toss some money in (Iirc, the tithing should be ~10% of your income) but this is voluntary. Also, for clarity, is there no separation of church and state in your country?

That is the same, you can just visit any mass, funerals or baptisms, you are just not allowed to participate in communion. Theoretically, that is, it is not like anyone actually checks your congregation membership when you partake.

Data protection is just an excuse. Your parents sign you up via baptism, and at age fourteen you are supposed to confirm your membership through ritual, which I suppose is the same for the US offshoot of the Catholic Church, although I have to admit that I have not put in the effort to check. When you do, the moment you start earning an income that is not from any apprenticeship, the church will send you a letter, demanding money. The data your congregation has on you is simply your birthday, sex and place of residence.

How much this is just a silly hurdle designed to prevent people from readily leaving congregations they joined is seen in the inverse: if I were to sign up for another congregation, that can be done directly with them. Joining? Easy. Leaving? Oh no, please go to your district administration and tell them that you want to leave and they will inform your congregation for you. Just to make sure nothing goes wrong.

There is full separation between church and state here (in theory, at least), but the first couple of elected governments after World War 2 were lead by the People's Party (or, as it was called at the time, the Christian party) and had deeply Catholic roots, and thus decided to reinstate Austro-Hungarian Empire laws passed in 1868, but conveniently keeping the church tax law from Nazi Germany.

Edited April 7 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I have officially taken care of my taxes. Thank you H&R Block for making taxes in Ameristan so byzantine instead of the feds just sending me a bill.

6 hours ago, majestic said:

With the government removing Good Friday for us Protestants as public holiday a while back and the Church now wanting a membership fee in excess of what is tax deductible, it no longer makes sense to be a part of the Protestant Church.

Maybe I'm just an ignorant lapsed Catholic here but why in the world would they take away Good Friday as a holiday for Protestants?

The rest of it sounds like a real handful, I guess if they make it hard to leave that means they can make more money save more souls.

[majestic]

1 hour ago, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Maybe I'm just an ignorant lapsed Catholic here but why in the world would they take away Good Friday as a holiday for Protestants?

A combination of economic lobbyism and European Union law. Only a handful of religious minorities (including our 4% protestant population) had Good Friday as a public holiday in Austria, meaning that roughly five percent of the population had an extra public holiday, i.e. basically one day of paid vacation more than everyone else, as long as they are members of their congregation. Which the European Court of Justice found to be a discriminatory practice, and it is hard to argue with that finding.

Faced with the decision to either take away Good Friday as a public holiday for religious minorities or granting it as a public holiday for all residents, the choice was easy: economic lobby groups said that the economy would collapse if everyone had one more paid day of leave, and thus it was taken away. Needless to say that we had a right wing government at the time, headed by the People's Party with their supposed Catholtic roots.

One would think that good Catholics would be amenable to add such an important day of Christian belief to the roster of public holidays, but, well, when the party donors do not want to deal with a work time reduction of 0.0038% (I calculated this based on the average work time of Austrian employees, based on official statistics for 2023), then they do not want to deal with it. There's a certain irony in some of the same lobby groups insisting on a 3.75% decrease in overall work time just four years later during negotiations for our collective agreements. To make working full time more attractive.

Edited April 7 by majestic

[Agiel]

While I wait for <<The Old World>> Core Rulebook and <<Forces of Fantasy>> to come back in stock I thought it high time to finally finish a kit that languished in my pile of shame for too long:

Spoiler filter for a, shall we say... slightly spicy banner design:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited April 7 by Agiel

[ShadySands]

Soaked up the sun then ate a sandwich.

[Gfted1]

Yeah the mailwoman just lent me her eclipse glasses and it was pretty cool looking.

[Malcador]

Clouds moved and blocked the sun here.

[LadyCrimson]

The last couple nights I have woken up to find myself on the floor. Once from my low mattress, once while on the higher couch (hubby walked down the hall to find me sprawled on the floor, blankets strewn around lol).  So far I have not injured myself, bruised a hip a little. It's probably more like half-rolling, half sliding off, I suppose.   When I was a kid (up to 10ish) I used to roll out of the bed/onto the floor frequently - didn't usually wake me up, I was just on the floor in the morning. Once fell off a top bunk during a trip, that sort of stuff. Ha. At some point in my early teens I started sleeping like a stone, generally never moving, blankets totally undisturbed etc,

Apparently I'm reverting to childhood again. Pfffft. Well if I'm lucky it won't continue much. If it does I'll have to put pillows/pads by the bed/couch etc. since I'm not 8 anymore, more likely to injure. Sigh.

[Keyrock]

Whatever was wrong with me went away and my appetite returned. I wound up going from 198 lbs to 191 lbs in the process, now the goal is to keep the weight off and not overeat and immediately rebound to 198 (or higher). Earlier this year in January I got sick, but like really sick, for about 2 1/2 days, lost 5 lbs, then gained it all back (and then some) almost immediately afterward. If I can stabilize at 191 that will make my next round of planned carnivore diet in about a month that much easier, since the goal I had set for myself was to get down to 185, I might even go for my ultimate goal of 180 if I'm still at 191 when I start the diet. 180 has been the ultimate goal since I did my first round of carnivore a couple of years ago when I hit my heaviest around 216 or 217. I won't have a 6-pack or anything at 180, but it's what I consider my ideal weight. I'd have to get down to 170 to have a 6-pack, but I don't think I could maintain that weight even if I managed to get there. 180 I think I can maintain once I reach it; it will be challenging but doable. First I have to get there, though.

[Hurlshort]

Yeah, I was sitting at around 158 for years, and it was pretty easy to get my abs to show if I did a few days of work. But then my wife started making homemade sourdough bread, and now I live at 168 with a nice little belly. It's kind of worth it.