I've never done good things, I've never done bad things, I've never done anything out of the blue

Salutations, ATS. I feel kind of bad admitting this, but I'm a longtime semi-lurker turned poster. Originally, I had come here exclusively for teh lulz, totally expecting the tinfoil hat mines to be filled to capacity. Over a year later, I've realized that the "nutjob conspiracy theorists" that subsist exclusively on a diet of coffee and fingernails are in the minority here; instead, ATS is a community of intelligent, friendly, social, and altogether awesome people.

I live in Pittsburgh, and I work in the medical imaging field. More and more, I'm growing despondent with healthcare in this country -- not just for the usual reasons, but just watching what it does to people, how it treats patients like case studies and such without even telling them a lot of the time. It's a bad feeling when your goal is to help people, and the entity you work for is doing the opposite. I know this is indicative of a larger system at play -- a corporate attitude where money is everything and the individual is nothing -- and that's probably the ultimate reason why I've come to ATS. I'm so disillusioned and angry (just like a lot of you), and though I've known something is wrong for a very long time, this site has put a lot of what I've been feeling into words.

In my free time (what little I have), I write sci-fi and horror stories. My favourite writers are Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, and H.P. Lovecraft. Back when my job wasn't trying to kill me with an insane schedule, I was into photography, and I had a nice little project called "Cthulhu and Me" (which I would love to pick back up). I wish I could say more about myself, but my job has completely swallowed my life. I'm pretty much there all the time. Relatively recently, I was diagnosed with epilepsy, and it's been a constant struggle to get that under control as well. I often joke "I used to be a person."

I don't want anybody to think I'm the most depressing person alive, or anything; I've been through a lot in thirty years, and I'll get through this, too. I'm a cancer survivor, and I was given about a year or so whenever they finally found it. I didn't have any options other than the atomic bomb of chemo -- it was surprising that I even got through that. And that's just the tip if the proverbial iceberg. So, the way I see it, I'm an Anything Survivor. If the bombs fell tomorrow, I'd probably stand up with the cockroaches, shake the dust off of my hair, and play "London Calling" about thirty times because it was so fitting. That's how I've always pictured it, anyway.

So, that's my post. I'm really terrible at writing these things.

reply to post by Hyaena


Dear Hyaena,

What a wonderful introduction. Ashes to ashes to you too. Love the look of the blonde girl in the video. Now lets see how many others get it. Peace.

What are you saying?.....you write incredibly well. Glad you're here finally.

Sorry you work so much at a job that's disenchanting to you. That must suck but......after all, we're here in this incarnation for material wealth!!! They told me that in school. It' been all about 'education education education' and 'money money money'.
Luckily there's a break on the horizon. Looks like we'll all be switching over to: 'survival survival survival' mode any day now.

You're not alone. If that helps. Sometimes they're just words to read. Hope that's not the case here. You're truly not alone.

You're remarkably brave and seemingly strong. And if this world blows up, I hope I find myself standing next to you....along side the cockroaches of course. I'll be the one with the funny looking Human eye

Very nice to meet you

hi op

i remember (here in the uk) quite a few years ago
a student doctor dropped dead
he was pressured into doing around 20 hrs a day
he practicaly lived there for a year
sorry no sources

Well an official welcome to membership even though you aint new to this place. Wonder how many members was familiar with your thread title.

Anyway, interesting introduction, I'd say you aren't so bad at writing either.

Hello and welcome from another cancer survivor!

reply to post by AQuestion


My dad got me into Bowie at a very young age. To this day, I will argue that Hunky Dory is his best album, and it has everything to do with listening to it over and over on the old record player in the basement.

I will say this, too: On December 21st, 2007, I listened to "Five Years" and had a good laugh. Well, maybe "laugh" is the wrong word, although I did laugh a little. It wasn't an outright happy thing. It was more of a "Oh boy, here we go. I wonder where we'll be in five years, or if this little theory will amount to nothing?"

Being the friendly skeptic that I am, I still don't know. But we can all agree that it's been an interesting year so far.

reply to post by Human_Alien


You know, I'm not sure we're going to be in "survival" mode entirely, either. With the way things are going, people aren't going to have a choice but to see what's going on. They have to wake up -- there's simply no other way. That's half the battle right there. And when that happens, TPTB lose the "P".

I'm really, really, really hoping that we won't have to go out into the wilderness and live that way for a while. Not that I would mind it (I grew up in the middle of the woods), but I think about my patients. Some (many) wouldn't survive. And if everybody in the city would leave them behind, I'd probably stick around to do what I could. Even though I'm not a doctor or a RN, I still have enough patient care skills under my belt to be able to do something.

Mayan, Web-bot, Nostradamus, or whatever prophecy you want to go by since I'm not going to list them all -- maybe the lesson of 2012 is that we have to learn how to unite as a species or be assured of our own destruction.

reply to post by davesmart


I pulled thirty-six hours at the hospital once. It was whenever the East Coast was buried under eight thousand feet of snow a few years ago. That night, I went home, got about four hours of sleep, and returned to the hospital for a sixteen hour shift. After four hours of sleep, I went back for another fourteen or fifteen -- I honestly can't remember. That night, I had a huge seizure in my sleep and somehow hit my head so hard (probably off my bed) that I wound up with closed head trauma. They got mad that I called off work that day. I was vomiting and couldn't see out of one eye, and then I couldn't be woken up for fourteen hours.

That was when I knew I had to get my epilepsy under control. Unfortunately, my job doesn't always make that easy.

reply to post by freethinker123


Thanks. As I said, I kind of felt bad as to why I started coming here. Rest assured, however, that my attitude changed after hanging around for a little bit. Don't be fooled, though: I'm still as new as they come. I still can't figure out how to flag posts.

reply to post by Night Star


Awesome. Are you completely better now or are you still in remission?

I kind of hate "remission". It's like being in Limbo.

Hello long time lurker turned recent new member! Great to have you onboard. We understand that ATS (our fair website) can be quite overwhelming at times. That's why we have this little presentation to help you get on your way to becoming a valued member here at the forum.

So kick back and enjoy the little presentation tour to get you oriented in the right direction!

Welcome Hyaena

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Once you have achieved 20 post replies, you will then be able to start your own threads in the appropriate forums and additionally send & receive messages to and from fellow ATS members.

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reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


There's a lot of reading here -- reading that just kind of opens a wormhole onto itself.

I'm going to be here for hours.

Time and again I tell myself I'll stay clean tonight - but I come back to ATS anyway. I'm in a cover band and Ashes to ashes was the first song we learned.

Welcome aboard, glad to have you!
It sounds like you've been through the wringer but we're happy you've come through.
I had a friend up there name Mary Radford who passed away 2 years back. Your post made me wonder if perhaps you'd worked up some images for her.
Pittsburgh is a big place divided in to lots of little burbs, I used to love to visit there especially for the arts festival in summer.
Old memories now but again it's great you decided to step out of the shadows.

I got up this morning and went into the kitchen singing that very song you have in your title . You must be here for a reason. Welcome to ATS

There's a forum on here especially for writers too, look out for that.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


I used to be in a few punk bands myself. Ever hear of The Casualties? I'm at a slightly higher pitch than that guy, but otherwise, yeah, that's Punk Rock Voice™.

I'm sorry about your friend. However, I work exclusively with pediatrics here in the city. In my hometown, I was adult-oriented, neuro-focused.

The art festival still exists here. Also, if you're looking for a quick Steel City fix, check out the "Pittsburgh Dad" series on YouTube. It's hilarious.

reply to post by wigit


Well, I hope I'm here for a reason. The more my life rolls on, the more I think that everything has to happen for a reason, no matter how slight.

Yeah, I thought I saw that somewhere. However, I haven't actually gone to the writing forum yet -- I'm still a bit overwhelmed. But I'll check it out eventually. Thanks for the reminder.

Originally posted by Hyaena
reply to post by Night Star

 

Awesome. Are you completely better now or are you still in remission?

I kind of hate "remission". It's like being in Limbo.

Cancer is all gone. None of us have any guarentees in how long we will be alive though. Got to live one day at a time and make the best of it.

reply to post by Hyaena


lol welcome aboard

my 1st and still favorite bowie video/song