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Chocobean's comments
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Chocobean  ·  2208 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What's everyone watching these days?

Didn't really care for devilman crybaby...

Joel McHale's show is still silly, but it doesn't really matter because I'm watching to see Joel being happy and make money close to his family.

Nailed It! Is a silly baking show featuring very bad bakers. Sort of like a reverse Great British Bake Off. Funny but one can only watch in small doses.

Waiting for Handmaid's Tale to come back.

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card is beautiful and beings a lot of nostalgia.

If you like anime you owe it to yourself to watch Guru Guru Magic Circle. It's a glorious celebration of anime and RPG tropes: irreverent humour with a heart of gold.

Chocobean  ·  2208 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 7, 2018

Hong Kong. We speak a different dialect of Chinese than People's Republic of China, have our own currency, police force, laws, courts, economy, writing system, food, and culture. But China had a choke hold on the little city state and wants to see us assimilated, or at least dead before any rise of being independent.

Chocobean  ·  2210 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What Does It Mean to Die?

I think I understand what you are saying and, although my current thoughts are a mess, would have readily agreed with you two weeks ago.

The gray area comes from when exactly 1 should be transitioned to 0. If someone no longer has intellect but has consciousness, it's pretty hard to unhook machines that will gaurantee the transfer to death. If someone has almost no consciousness but to the family seems like they do some of the time, that can be an uncomfortably long time.

This little girl will never laugh or walk again, her family knows that. And it sounds like to them they are, in their minds, ready to let go when she is no longer responding: ie, no more consciousness. The trouble is what seems like non consciousness spasms to some looks an awful lot like periodic consciousness to others.

I don't think we're comfortable reclassifying death as "unable to demonstrate consciousness after X months" or "can't obey requests after x minutes". The article shows some aren't comfortable with defining death as lack of MRI evidence for brain activity. So what should it be? When x percentage of the brain becomes liquified?

Chocobean  ·  2210 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: For Two Months, I Got My News From Print Newspapers. Here’s What I Learned.

" much of what you get online isn’t quite news, and more like a never-ending stream of commentary, one that does more to distort your understanding of the world than illuminate it."

And not particularly good commentary either.

I started listening to my country's state funded radio for news and entertainment recently. Was surprised by the quality of both the content and commentary. Instead of wading through hundreds of comments, I really only needed three guests who are willing to converse politely, in depth, and with integrity.

Chocobean  ·  2210 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 7, 2018

How was the funeral, did you catch it or someone drop the pall?

Chocobean  ·  2210 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 7, 2018

Halfway death is halfway alive. What's the diagnosis?

Chocobean  ·  2210 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 7, 2018

Holy crap that's pretty grim.

Is it only your right eye? Any chance you could marry a Canadian?

My mom lost vision in the right eye couple years ago, when its optic nerve got squished by the growing tumours in her brain. We has low key been panicking about what happens when it squishes her remaining eye, but she had a stroke last week and so maybe she might not live for that to be an issue.

Sorry that was irrelevant. Just wanted to say, yeah sometimes stuff just sucks so bad.

I hope you find an affordable cure. That sounds so disgusting to even type.

Chocobean  ·  2210 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 7, 2018

Wow, I hadn't realized that I even felt that way until I read your post. I had never really articulated this thought before.

I'm not Armenian, but my people (HK) group also stand at around 7m and dwindling, with our probably dying language, and a politically powerful persecutor who pretends to be our Lord and Savior. Our people haven't been around for near as long as you guys, but a number of what you said really hit hard: (1) the political situation breaks my heart, (2) I hadn't seen non-immediate circle folks of my people for a while ..., (3) that hole in my heart I don't usually realise is there.

It reminds me of watching the new Trek movie, when Spock realises he is now a member of an endangered species.

Do you think.... if certain things of your culture will persist long after the last one of you perish, what might they be?

Chocobean  ·  2210 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The long, incredibly tortuous, and fascinating process of creating a Chinese font

What a daunting task. Still, the Chinese written has persisted across thousands of years and influences can still be found in Japanese, Korean and tiny bits of Vietnamese.

Hopefully their financial rewards are rich. It's a worth undertaking to be sure.

I look forward to being able to purchase that cute rounded don't I always see on Bubble Tea black board menus.

Chocobean  ·  2210 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What Does It Mean to Die?

I would not have hesitated to call a vegetative person dead, two weeks ago.

I thought the brain was what keeps the heart and lungs working, and that if the brain stops sending signals then the other two won't work anymore even if we hook them up to a machine.

This little girl has been breathing and has her heart beating for more than four years after being declared dead.

I love that the article mentioned the brain dead definition is usually decided on by intellectuals who would see themselves as dead when they are no longer able to use their intellect to converse and interact with the world.

It's an attitude that ignores a passively "hanging out" family member who might just want to hear what's going on, even if they can't interact back. It's like someone quiet at your table: if they are not talking, does that mean they aren't part of the party?

I was so confident in my answer until two weeks ago, when my mother had a stroke. I used to think death is this perfectly precise fine line that divides 1 from 0, until my loved ones fell into that band and didn't come out of either side. She lived in that land where by some definition she's one but by some she's another.

I hope she experiences a healing miracle. It would turn our world completely upside-down, but it would help us talk about dignity of life beyond terms like if someone can contribute to commerce, offer fresh organs, or intelligence defines life.