Part of the problem with dementia is that short term memory loss and aphasia are two of the most common early symptoms. It’s not because it’s a difficult word, it is because their brain no longer has the capacity to function that way. It wouldn’t matter what you called it, they still may not be able to learn it or remember it: the part of the brain that used to do that for them may no longer be accessible.

Most people don’t realise that dementia is terminal. It is a gradual cognitive and physical decline that results in death.

The Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre at University of Tasmania has an open course on Understanding Dementia that is really good, and free, if anyone is interested in learning more.

That while they judge themselves by their best intentions, they invariably, and subconsciously judge others by their actions.

Damn. That’s deep.

Australia. All cunts.

Surviving my children.

He was great in High Fidelity but unfortunately he’s played the same character in every movie since!

The CD-rom for Mechwarrior 2 could play in a standard CD player. Track one was the data for the game, but the remaining 22-odd tracks were the in-game music. We used to listen to the Mechwarrior 2 soundtrack while playing everything else. I still love that music.

I worked with a guy that proudly proclaimed that he voted for the right because they looked after the rich.

He was not rich, but he purchased lottery tickets weekly and stated he’d rather get screwed while poor than pay more tax if he, some day, became rich.

And that was the day I realised that we’re fucked.

I learned to write a couple of different styles/fonts for a job I had a few years ago.

1. Get yourself a copy of the style you would like to emulate.
2. Use a pencil and copy the font on a lined page. The lines help with proportion, size and shape. The pencil helps with pressure regulation. Press too hard and you will break the pencil: press too light and you won’t see the writing.
3. Write slowly. Be deliberate: focus on copying the shape as precisely as you can.
4. Practise, practise, practise. You need to develop muscle memory and that takes time.

It’s doable, but it takes patience and time, like any skill. Good luck.

Hungry Jacks Bacon Deluxe

To me, depression has always been like Bilbo in Mirkwood. He’s at the top of the trees, looking around, but all he can see is trees. He doesn’t realise that they’re in a valley, so there’s nothing but trees all of the way to the horizon. There is no end in sight. There’s no point in going on: he knows that they can’t go on much further, so why bother even trying. They might as well give up. But we know, from outside looking in, that he’s just got to make it to the top of the next valley. If he checks again once he reaches the top then he will be able to see all the way to the Lonely Mountain and that the trees end soon and give way to the lake… He’s almost through the darkest part.

So back to your question…

Making an appointment to see a therapist gives you a goal. You’ve made a commitment to be at a specific place at a specific time. That is often enough to get you up the next valley to see a way forward. The therapy itself can also be quite beneficial, but I’ve always seen the making and keeping of the appointment as a fundamental motivator for my own will when I’m deeply depressed. It’s hilarious to me that I will consider ending it all, despite the effect I know it will have on my family and friends, but that I would postpone suicide to keep me from the embarrassment of missing an appointment. The depressed brain is completely irrational.

Exercise requires getting up, getting outside, going to the gym, going to the park, being around people… The exercise itself is beneficial with the endorphins and the elevated heart rate and the requirement for replenishment (eating food), but again, for me it has always been just getting out of my room and going somewhere. Just get to the front door… Right, you’re here now! Might as well go for a walk. Just gotta hang on long enough to get to the top of the next valley.

I recommend exercise and therapy because it forces people to choose between the “permanent solution to the temporary problem” and the possibility of hope. 99.9% of the time, people will choose hope.

I also recommend them because they both work for me. There’s no cure: you’ve just gotta hold on long enough to see the lonely mountain.

We didn’t break up, but she broke off our engagement. I was a bit of a dick and she told me so. I told her that she should propose to me when she was ready. I sorted my shit out. Together 21 years, married for 16.