Nice people thread 2 - now even nicer

JonnyBravo

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

I bet they know how to fill in a lottery entry though; and manage to do that on time?.

Absolutely.

It was the laughing about it all that riled me most.
Laughing about how they made appt's but then couldn't be bovvered to go. Oh how clever and funny.

:mad:

JonnyBravo

Ellie2758 wrote: »

It does make you wonder what came first, the chicken or the egg. This is exactly my friend's experience, inability to control blood sugar level since her heart attack. BUT was the heart attack caused by her diabetes? Or are her probs and your dad's probs with controlling their levels all down to the heart attack?

Probably both.

Even "well controlled" patients are far more likely to suffer complications.
"Well controlled" is relative to those "poorly controlled" not to those without diabetes. They are truly the "well controlled".
As is usual the human body is far better at it's original purpose than we can ever hope to be with our devised solutions.

lemonjelly

Ellie2758 wrote: »

It does make you wonder what came first, the chicken or the egg. This is exactly my friend's experience, inability to control blood sugar level since her heart attack. BUT was the heart attack caused by her diabetes? Or are her probs and your dad's probs with controlling their levels all down to the heart attack?

I typed a long and eloquent response to this yesterday, which doesn't appear owing to upgrades or something technical. Suffice to say, it was worth a minimum of 12 thanks!:D

Briefly, we never actually found out whther or not he actually did have a heart attack. All we know, & all the docs told us, was that he should've died.

It is difficult to compare, although he never had any real problems with blood sugar levels, we weren't measuring them.

Of course, as diabetes affects the nerve endings, diabetics can't always feel certain things. In example, the docs said that my dad wouldn't have felt chest pains if he did have a heart attack.

It is wierd. I was out with mate who I go out with a lot. I cracked a few jokes, & got minimal response. Now, I'm no profesional comedian, however I knew some of these jokes were pretty damn funny. I was suprised. I ended up having a long chat with him, saying he wasn't himself, as he's usually very jocular, chatty, outgoing. Initially he said he was fine. A few weeks later, we were out again. He told me that until I spoke with him at length, he hadn't really been aware. But reflecting on what I said, he realised a few others had indirectly hinted at something similar. He went to the quacks, & they diagnosed him in the very early stages of diabetes. Fortunately he is still (2 years on) diet controlled.

Dang. Ended up re-typing most of it after all, despite vowing I wouldn't.

Anyway, to the book lovers out there.

I was reading this:

Great, and very insightful book, and at times, quite sad too. But some good musings and wonderings too.

I then moved onto this:

I initially thought it would be tough going, but proved to be very readable, thorough, enlightening with some good explanations. Interestingly, it is more about the characters, than the actual battles, and talks a lot about the background of Harold Goodwinson, Harald Hardrada & William duke of normandy.

I then read this in a day. Unputdownable!


Simply put, this book has to be read. It is amazing how easy it can be to reduce a person. It is phenomenal to try to understand exactly how these camps worked, and scary how efficiently they killed so many people. The numbers are staggering. It is not a gory book, and the detail is personal more than anything else. More than anything I've read, this book made me realise that we can never allow this sort of thing to happen again. Combined with this film:

it highlights how easy it can be to reduce human beings to little more than numbers.

I've decided to move onto something lighter. Last night, i started on this:

vivatifosi

LJ, given the books you've highlighted, you might really enjoy Maus, by Art Spiegelman. Its a graphic novel about his Jewish family's experience in the war and is deeply touching. I think it should be required reading at GCSE history level. Sorry if I've mentioned this before, I've got a great memory sometimes then other times its like a sieve.

I don't know how to insert pics, but I've just finished:

Animal Farm: had forgotten how pertinent a view of power this was. Made me think of N Korea as a current parallel.

How to Live Dangerously by Warwick Cairns: a very funny view of how dangerous things like children playing outside, adults riding bikes to work in the rush hour, people flying in aeroplanes etc are. It also looks at how pantos banned the throwing of sweets into the audience as a health and safety measure, even though nobody had ever reported being injured by a flying fun-sized choccie bar. Very funny and sensible all at the same time.

I'm now reading:
1984: I'm going all Orwellian at the moment and have started scribbing notes about CCTV monitoring of society and facebook stalkers. I know I'll either write a brilliant book review at the end, or end up being carted off to a bunker full off tinfoil people.
As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela by Mark Thomas: I love Mark Thomas, he's far more erudite than Michael Moore and does a similar job with less money. This book is making me angry as well as being funny.

lemonjelly

How to Live Dangerously certainly looks an entertaining and interesting read Viva! I may well look it up.

Ah, Orwell. Animal Farm. What. A. Book. Loved it, still do. Four legs good...
To be honest, in many ways I always preferred it to 1984. I think because of the simple & accessible way a complex idea is presented.
I keep meaning to read The Road to Wigan Pier, which is in my "to read" collection.

MAUS looks interesting. I will have to show restraint. Like clothes, I have a large number of books. I'm trying to wear out some of the older clothes & get them thrown out. The books, I'm trying to read. Shamefully (in a way), whilst on a day trip recently I ended up in a bookstore & bought 5 books. My books are now spread through 3 bookcases, & I really must get some of them read before more are allowed.

Worse still, both my birthday & christmas are approaching. This is generally a time of year when I get books (especially as most people know to not get clothing). I'm trying to find other stuff I need, to put off getting more books until christmas, so at least I'll have read some.

I'm struggling to do that though...:o

BTW Viva, all I do is seperately call up an amazon page, right click on the pic of the book, click copy, the re-open the mse page, & paste.

vivatifosi

lemonjelly wrote: »

Ah, Orwell. Animal Farm. What. A. Book. Loved it, still do. Four legs good...

So true. How he managed to make such an impact in 96 pages is amazing. Its succinct as well as beautifully constructed. A lesson to many authors I feel. We don't have enough well written novellas now. Steinbeck is another one who could pack a powerful story into a few pages and leave you wanting more, its a shame "more is more" seems to be the mantra these days, with fluff like Eclipse and Twilight.

lemonjelly

vivatifosi wrote: »

So true. How he managed to make such an impact in 96 pages is amazing. Its succinct as well as beautifully constructed. A lesson to many authors I feel. We don't have enough well written novellas now. Steinbeck is another one who could pack a powerful story into a few pages and leave you wanting more, its a shame "more is more" seems to be the mantra these days, with fluff like Eclipse and Twilight.

So true. Of mice & men immediately springs to mind.

Interesting point you highlight here Viva. As a kind of "quick win", I have looked at the size of the book I'm thinking of reading next (I nearly picked Gorky Park, but the 300+ pages & small type face made me hesitate). I was trying to pick a couple of shorter books, hoping the success of reading them quickly would spur me on to further reading. Despite the fact that I know it is the value of the book/subject/story & the quality of the writing that'll be the best barometer here.

Which reminds me, I also read Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. I loved About A Boy, properly funny in places. Didn't really think Fever Pitch was all that at all to be honest.

tomterm8

Hm, everyone is reading intellectual books. At the moment I am reading war and peace*. And, well, there is another book but I won't mention it. I like trashy books, but only if they have a happy ending, and three or more grammatical errors per chapter.

* I started it in 2002, and may get to page 10 any decade now.

lemonjelly

tomterm8 wrote: »

Hm, everyone is reading intellectual books. At the moment I am reading war and peace*. And, well, there is another book but I won't mention it. I like trashy books, but only if they have a happy ending, and three or more grammatical errors per chapter.

* I started it in 2002, and may get to page 10 any decade now.

Don't be embarrassed tomterm8, we are all friends here!:)

I wouldn't say I read all intellectual books. I do like taking time to read lighter entertaining stuff. Like music, and food, depends on what mood I'm in!:)

Davesnave

lemonjelly wrote: »

I wouldn't say I read all intellectual books. ...depends on what mood I'm in!:)

I am usually so knackered, it's just the Screwfix catalogue........!