Coffee Shop Forever, It's time to kick bottom and drink coffee! Options

[haute ecole rider]

It's "high school" only in dressage!

[mirocu]

It's "high school" only in dressage!

I´m foreign so it´s ok if I don´t get it



Or... pretend not to get it, rather...

[Vital]

It's definitely 'high' school where i live

[stargelman]

Sunday, we celebrated my niece's 14th birthday. My sister, my better half and I got her a bass and Rocksmith 2014, plus some assorted accessories. We anticipated it would make her happy but what happened is that she is now addicted. And I think that shortly she'll be much better than me, despite me having played for almost a year now. She can play that thing like a pro and SING at the same time. And I mean sing well. I'm so proud!

[Acadian]

stargelman, sounds like an excellent choice in gifting then!

[haute ecole rider]

Last fall I talked my Mom into making a major switch.

She had been using computers (first my old Mac Performa, then my old laptop, then her own Macbook). She never quite got into the whole computer thing. I started watching her with it and realized that she was having trouble seeing the cursor on the screen. As her vision worsened, it became harder for her because she was seeing less and less of the screen.

That's when I realized the iPad would be much easier for her - smaller screen more appropriate for her visual field, and no cursor to lose. So I got her the iPad mini because the smaller screen was close to what she could encompass in a single glance.

it's still a struggle for her, but much, much less so. All she has to do is locate an item of interest then tap it with her finger. No more trying to locate it, then locate the cursor, then relocate the item . . .

From there it was a simple step up to the Apple TV. Once she was used to a new way of watching TV (at her convenience, rather than the networks', and without having to set up any complicated equipment to record beforehand), she was off and running, starting with the entire Twilight Zone series with Rod Sterling.

The month of September is the iTunes Festival, located in London. Thirty days of top artists throwing concerts. All free on iTunes. Available on the Apple TV. So I noticed that yesterday Tony Bennett was playing. Mom loves TB. She loves that whole Rat Pack era - Frankie, Dean, Dino, and let's not forget Sammy. Tony is one of the old diehards (she also went to high school with Ramsey Lewis, who is incidentally still making music these days, though both are pushing 80 now). I told Mom about it, and showed her how to access the concert. Said it would be live on the Apple TV at 3 pm. Now I had to go to work, but I reminded her before I left.

She didn't seem too enthused about it, but she did watch it. And when I asked her about it this morning, she said she enjoyed it, though the opening songs were a little too "updated" for her. But his classics were still the same classics she enjoyed when she was in her late teens and early 20's.

As for me, what am I excited about. On September 16, at 1:30 pm Central Time, Chrissie Hynde is playing! You bet I'm going to be watching that one! I grew up with the Pretenders and Blondie (and Queen and many other greats) playing on the radio in high school, on the bus, in the car when I was taking drivers' ed, and just about everywhere. So I'm going to have my own blast from the past in just a little over a week from now . . .

[mirocu]

Surprisingly enough, tech stuff like ipads are not only for the young

[haute ecole rider]

In fact, the whole touch screen stuff are much easier for older people like my mom. It's the tactile interaction that is the main underpinning of these things. Remember they spent a lifetime manipulating physical items like pens, books, and such to make things work. Retraining their muscle memory as well as thought processes to work with virtual items is more difficult. Touch screen devices like iPads bridge that gap for them.

The hardest part, really, was getting my mom used to the idea that she can indeed do everything on the iPad that she had been doing on the computer (which wasn't much).

I'm just delighted that she took advantage of her Apple TV iTunes Festival access to enjoy an artist that she has liked since her youth.

[mALX]

I know many of you have probably given me up for dead, and you were very nearly right. As you probably have already guessed, I suffered another stroke last fall. What the first one didn't take from me, the second one did.

This second stroke was a bad one. I can only use my right hand to type, "hunt and peck" style typing; (so this will say pretty much what I sent in emails to Liz/Kobby/Acadian/McB/Blackie/DE/etc. to get it posted quicker).

My hair turned white overnight, (the color has just started coming back in the last couple weeks, so I must be improving). They had me on steroids for a while, and I blew up like a balloon - hope that goes away. I can walk, but fall easy. I have a lot of trouble concentrating, remembering things I did 10 minutes ago, etc. I had some severe depression for a while - not just because I am totally disabled now, but on top of that it was hard to see myself looking this way. I don't even recognize myself in the mirror anymore.

After the second stroke everything here went all to hell. My email/internet has been shut off since last fall. My husband lost his job before all/any of this happened (some of the stress that caused the strokes), we were already living on our savings. No one was hiring then, especially not someone my husband's age.

When the savings was all gone, we lost the internet/telephone/cable TV. My husband pawned our car titles just to keep eating/mortgage/electric paid. By New Years the house was going into forclosure, by March water and electricity was shut off (for two months before a local church helped us out and got everything turned back on again at the end of May). We lost all the cars but one (Bob's SUV) to the Title Pawn. Not funny how quickly life can turn it around on someone.

Bob got a temporary job and just got the house out of forclosure July 30th - and got the internet turned back on yesterday (finally!), right before the job ended.I'm hoping Bob finds more work soon, because I won't be able to work anymore now.

So yeah, I have been depressed as hell. I have friends in other states more than in TN - friends I needed a phone or internet to contact. I felt so isolated without either, and couldn't leave the house without someone taking me till just this past month. My vision is still blurred, but I have been able to get out and about a few times on my own (going to doctor's offices, but at least I was out on my own - even if I was driving like the Brady girl that "Very Brady" movie).

The Internet installer left at 4:00PM yesterday, but they didn't get the Email working till just now. I spent all last night up reading all the posts on Chorrol (here) that I missed since I've been off here - was freaked out as hell when I saw that someone got on there pretending to be me! Who would do that?

Whoever it was, their English was really iffy, just like FlowerBoom's was (who I was instrumental in getting banned from here last year, so he was my first thought when I saw that). I was really glad most of you who know me well could see/feel the difference. That was really shocking to me, that anyone would have done that.

I hope and pray that jackass didn't hurt anyone in my name, especially not Liz. Liz said she cried when she thought I was alive - I cried when I read where she said that. I care a LOT about all of you, Liz especially because she can be hurt easier than most.

You can have no idea how much I have thought about you all this past year laying in that stupid bed - wondered and worried how you all were and wished I could contact any one of you somehow. You all were in my thoughts every single day. I have missed you all beyond even friends I know IRL, wish I did really know you all IRL.

I have missed you all so much




This post has been edited by mALX: Sep 10 2014, 10:56 PM

[Acadian]

Welcome back, mALX. What a relief to hear from you! I'm so sorry for both the medical and financial troubles and sure hope you continue to improve on both counts.

Having just received an e-mail from your old em account and seeing that this post is from your real chorrol account, I think I can safely certify you as the real you this time. Yes, it was traumatic for many of us with that imposter - even more so since we so desperately wanted it to be you!

Again, welcome back, my friend!

[Grits]

mALX, how wonderful to see you’re back! I’m afraid I feared the worst. The forums haven’t been the same without you. You were sorely missed. Welcome back!!

[Elisabeth Hollow]

I think I've sent you about a hundred emails since you disappeared, mALX. Yeah, it hit me really hard when that impostor decided to mess with our heads. Now I'm off to check my email to verify this.

I got the email. -sigh of relief-

This post has been edited by Elisabeth Hollow: Sep 11 2014, 12:42 AM

[ghastley]

I have missed you all so much

Not as much as we missed you. (And Maxical, and the triplets at the Lucky Mudcrab, and ...)

[King Coin]

Oh my god mALX I missed you so much!!!! I can hardly believe it's you!

[King Of Beasts]

mALX!!

I'm sorry everything took a turn for the worse

I'm glad you're back though, we've missed you!!

[SubRosa]

It sounds like Scary Bird almost ate you, like it did Kobbie's sandwich! Don't feel too bad, I often cannot remember what I did 10 minutes ago, and I don't have the excuse of a stroke!

Just glad to hear that you are getting back on your feet.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Sep 11 2014, 02:10 AM

[haute ecole rider]

I have missed you all beyond even friends I know IRL, wish I did really know you all IRL.

I have missed you all so much

That is just how I feel about a lot of the folks here on Chorrol, too. So I can't begin to imagine how lonely you were without the Internet and without a way to get around and get in touch with us.

As for knowing us IRL, I rather suspect you do know us better than our own IRL friends do! There is a tendency to share stuff in a forum like this that we tend to keep from the people we see everyday.

I have shared in the frustration of everyone here in knowing that you were hurting and that we couldn't reach out to you except through the pixels of our screens, anger that an impostor dared con us with your name and irreplaceable spirit. Now I am delighted and tickled pink to see your avatar (and your forum stats) in a post from today. I'm sure I'm not the only one wanting to reach through the screen and give you a great big hug and a big smooch on your cheek (the upper one, not the other )!

Instead, I have to settle for this:

[Black Hand]

I am *always* here for you mALX.

I didn't know one way or the other what fate had befallen you, I hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. Time does not degrade my loyalty, and Chaos cannot rip a friend from my heart.

Any issues arise, let me know. I'll get them straightened out, one way or another.

[McBadgere]

*Reads*...

*Sniffles*...

*Bottom lip trembles*...

*Wails and runs around corner knocking stack of tyres over*...

[Elisabeth Hollow]

*Reads*...

*Sniffles*...

*Bottom lip trembles*...

*Wails and runs around corner knocking stack of tyres over*...

Cars!