I Had A Random Thought...

[SecretAsianMan]

Just before Thanksgiving, my Nexus 4 got the update to Android Lollipop.  I installed it and it looks really nice.  I was happy for a while, until one morning it broke all the Google Play services and everything Google related stopped working.  Everything that didn't rely on a login from Google worked like it used to, but I couldn't get email, weather, notifications, access the Play Store, etc.  After some searching it seemed like this was not an isolated incident and several people complained that the update broke their system as well.  The general reasoning seemed to be that it was a buggy version of Google Play services, the solution to which appeared to be disabling it and installing a previous stable version.  Except I couldn't disable it because it was an active administrator according to the device manager that wouldn't sync.  So in the end I had to do a factory reset which so far has fixed everything.  I use a lot of cloud services so I didn't lose anything crucial but it's still annoying all the same to have to set everything up again.  Also I've ended up uninstalling several games because I lost all progress and don't feel like starting over again.

[Bjorn]

[BobbyBesar]

I'm still recovering from the shock of shaving for my Halloween costume. I was going to stay clean shaven for awhile, but that got nixed pretty quick, so it's in the process of growing back out now.

I literally do not recognize myself in pictures without my beard. I don't think I look bad, I just look like a radically different person.

I'd never get elective plastic surgery, because I'm afraid that if I change my appearance, I wouldn't know who I was anymore, and I'd have a weird existential crisis and subsequent nervous breakdown.

[Blambo]

I have really dry, curly hair for a Chinese person due to genetics and pool water chlorine. For a few years I suppressed it by using an insane amount of conditioner and keeping it very short. Recently however, I've been neglecting it and its grown into a form that consists of a thick bush on top and upward curling wolverine wings on the sides. It's really distressing every time I look in the mirror because for years I've internalized myself as a "normal looking dude" and the Einstein hair is making me doubt my own identity.

[dibs]

And you would rather this emotional turmoil over going to get your hair cut?

[Blambo]

Actually the reason why I haven't cut it yet is because it grows back really quickly and I no longer own shears. Seems futile.

I'm not sure how hair works but combing, shampooing, and buzz cuts always end up with the same result in about two weeks.

[tegan]

I've never broken a bone or been seriously ill, so I figure someday that karma's gonna come back to bite me and I'm gonna lose an eye or something.

[Merus]

I've never broken a bone or been seriously ill, so I figure someday that karma's gonna come back to bite me and I'm gonna lose an eye or something.

 

That's not how it works, my brother used up his medical good karma long ago and then someone coward punched him seven minutes from death.

[SecretAsianMan]

I think the worst thing to happen to me medically was a kidney stone.  That was freaking awful.

[Griddlelol]

I broke 5 bones at once! All in one foot. I like to think my robust, high calorie, high variety diet and huge amounts of exercise keep me healthy, but it's probably just being a bit of a recluse that does the job.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I broke a hole in my skull by running into a window. (I was playing with a wheelbarrow)

[eot]

I'm quite sure I broke a bunch of ribs and some bones in my shoulder a few years back. I, stupidly, never went to see anyone about it though and I still get what I think is phantom pain every now and then. It used to be pretty bad but it's lessened with time. The whole thing was a bit unsettling though, because for a few weeks my spine would crack like crazy if I tried to curve my back (when getting out of bed etc.), and anything to do with your spine is scary.

[Zeusthecat]

I think the worst thing to happen to me medically was a kidney stone.  That was freaking awful.

 

Passing kidney stones has been the worst physical and psychological trauma I've ever experienced. I can't imagine any mortal wound causing that much pain.

[Zeusthecat]

I'm 30 today. Yay.

[SecretAsianMan]

I'm 30 today. Yay.

 

Welcome to the club.  Also happy birthday.

[Justin Leego]

Fistbump. You've done well.

[Bjorn]

Happy birthday Zeus!  30 really isn't so bad, I've honestly enjoyed my 30s as much as my 20s, just in different ways. 

[SecretAsianMan]

Dumb but serious question: Why is it call Alcoholics Anonymous?  What makes it anonymous?  Isn't part of the meetings that you introduce yourself by saying "My name is _______ and I'm an alcoholic"?

[Merus]

From what I understand, they encourage you to not tell people you're going to Alcoholics Anonymous, but the real reason is that the book the founders anonymously wrote was called Alcoholics Anonymous.

[Mangela Lansbury]

Dumb but serious question: Why is it call Alcoholics Anonymous? What makes it anonymous? Isn't part of the meetings that you introduce yourself by saying "My name is _______ and I'm an alcoholic"?

They don't discourage you from sharing that you're going to meetings and you're fully identified in the meeting, but you're supposed to have a collective anonymity. You can fully disclose whatever you want about yourself with regards to AA, but you're supposed to recognize the anonymity of others. It's supposed to be a place of trust, so you're encouraged to share whatever you feel comfortable sharing with others but not take other people's stories and lives and fuck with them because of what you know from an AA meeting. There are limits to that -- they discourage you from sharing illegal shit you've done because if a person in your meeting is a cop, they might be compelled to arrest you, for instance -- but generally speaking, the anonymity is forfeit in the meeting but maintained outside of it.

[SecretAsianMan]

I take it that the anonymity isn't legally binding in the same way that confidentiality works with a doctor or lawyer.

[Bjorn]

Not at all.  The "anonymity" and the language around it also plays into the cult like nature of AA, where belief matters more than science.  A lot of the tenets of AA are based purely on the belief the original authors had back in the 30s, and have next to no data supporting the structure of the program versus other treatment options (including people attempting to quit without the aid of 12-step program). 

[Mangela Lansbury]

The anonymity doesn't play at all the way it did in the 30s, and just as someone who's dealt with AA through research -- the whole system doesn't work in a very fundamental way. If it works for an individual that's awesome and I'm really happy for that person, but there are a lot of people thrown into it who it just won't work for.

[Merus]

Not at all.  The "anonymity" and the language around it also plays into the cult like nature of AA, where belief matters more than science.  A lot of the tenets of AA are based purely on the belief the original authors had back in the 30s, and have next to no data supporting the structure of the program versus other treatment options (including people attempting to quit without the aid of 12-step program). 

 

I think it's a bit dubious to claim AA as a cult, as there's a few key aspects to totalist beliefs systems (of which cults are a well-known type) that AA doesn't share - AA is fairly poor at maintaining a milieu in which they have control over the information people receive, for instance, and that belief in a Higher Power is not one that is stage-managed by AA, or derived from AA's revealed teachings. There's more to a cult than just a private club that has spiritual beliefs.

 

From what I remember, AA is in that class of things where it doesn't work but everything else works even worse. Maybe that's changed in recent years.

[Bjorn]

As far as I know, it doesn't work better than anything else.  It's on par with just attempting to go sober on your own.  AA, and all the other 12-step programs based on it, historically do not like to talk about their efficacy, because it is abysmal.  At best it works for about 10 percent of people.  Part of the reason some researchers are beginning to think it's no better than going solo is that it mixes messages and treatments which are both good and bad.  And there's nothing that shows the people who made it with AA wouldn't have also have made it solo, that their slim success rate isn't just the normal rate of people who are able to stop an addiction on their own.

 

It crosses over into cultist territory, to me, when you start considering how incredibly devoted to defending it that members are.  They will accept no criticism of it.  And there are bunch and bunches of stories like this, of sexual predators using meetings as hunting grounds, and it honestly looks like a blind eye is often turned to these kinds of stories from the organization itself.

 

It probably depends a ton on each area on how cult like it is.  There's a bunch of variance.  And it is still better than paying to go to a 12-step rehab, which are fundamentally based on AA, but charge you thousands of dollars a day/week/month to go through them.