Conrad
@thelummer.bsky.social
Product at @foreignpolicy.com (not a journalist). Ex- bangordailynews.bsky.social. Board games, records, Lions/Rays. Fmr expat 🇬🇧 🇪🇪 🇯🇴 🇮🇹 🇩🇰, now in downtown Grand Rapids, MI. Lauren's spouse. Passionate globalist & materialist. Zero patience with autocrats.
I wish there were more fellow Lakatosians around, tl;dr: Progress is a fairytale, but some things tend to go, others don't, depending on the circumstances and habits of mind of the observers. A real Aristotelian, and also IIRC quite a flirt
December 5, 2025 at 9:39 PM
I wish there were more fellow Lakatosians around, tl;dr: Progress is a fairytale, but some things tend to go, others don't, depending on the circumstances and habits of mind of the observers. A real Aristotelian, and also IIRC quite a flirt
So for the foreseeable future, I can't get dressed by myself very easily, because stretching my arm to get it through an arm hole is rough and shrugging my shoulders to adjust how things sit on them is deadly. In the interregnum between Oxy and whatever else, you just live with it, I guess.
November 29, 2025 at 1:05 PM
So for the foreseeable future, I can't get dressed by myself very easily, because stretching my arm to get it through an arm hole is rough and shrugging my shoulders to adjust how things sit on them is deadly. In the interregnum between Oxy and whatever else, you just live with it, I guess.
...a total mystery why none of the five docs I've talked to so far referred me to them.
November 29, 2025 at 12:53 PM
...a total mystery why none of the five docs I've talked to so far referred me to them.
-they end up doing essentially nothing, and I get billed.
The PTs I work with are really nice. I like them and what they do is helpful for a few hours, but when I go to sleep fifteen hours after seeing them, it's hard to tell the difference.
If there is someone who addresses this better, it's...
The PTs I work with are really nice. I like them and what they do is helpful for a few hours, but when I go to sleep fifteen hours after seeing them, it's hard to tell the difference.
If there is someone who addresses this better, it's...
November 29, 2025 at 12:53 PM
-they end up doing essentially nothing, and I get billed.
The PTs I work with are really nice. I like them and what they do is helpful for a few hours, but when I go to sleep fifteen hours after seeing them, it's hard to tell the difference.
If there is someone who addresses this better, it's...
The PTs I work with are really nice. I like them and what they do is helpful for a few hours, but when I go to sleep fifteen hours after seeing them, it's hard to tell the difference.
If there is someone who addresses this better, it's...
...an industrial blender, I am doomed to fail the test questions the medical professionals in my life are asking.
There is something entirely fucked about the American medical systems approach to chronic pain. I'm just starting to understand it. They don't want to overtreat with meds and it means-
There is something entirely fucked about the American medical systems approach to chronic pain. I'm just starting to understand it. They don't want to overtreat with meds and it means-
November 29, 2025 at 12:47 PM
...an industrial blender, I am doomed to fail the test questions the medical professionals in my life are asking.
There is something entirely fucked about the American medical systems approach to chronic pain. I'm just starting to understand it. They don't want to overtreat with meds and it means-
There is something entirely fucked about the American medical systems approach to chronic pain. I'm just starting to understand it. They don't want to overtreat with meds and it means-
Where I'm at is kind of the worst of all outcomes: No meds, treatment that's expensive and time consuming but does not address symptoms, no real prognosis besides "it might get better eventually... but maybe not." Unless I compare chronic throbbing with intermittent hideous pain to being stuck in...
November 29, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Where I'm at is kind of the worst of all outcomes: No meds, treatment that's expensive and time consuming but does not address symptoms, no real prognosis besides "it might get better eventually... but maybe not." Unless I compare chronic throbbing with intermittent hideous pain to being stuck in...
I get a distinct vibe from doctors I talk to that they're primed for me to ask them for drugs, and to refuse that request. I'm actually just there for them to solve a problem (I really miss sleeping for more than 5 hours, I miss exercise, I miss putting my left arm around Lauren without thinking).
November 29, 2025 at 12:41 PM
I get a distinct vibe from doctors I talk to that they're primed for me to ask them for drugs, and to refuse that request. I'm actually just there for them to solve a problem (I really miss sleeping for more than 5 hours, I miss exercise, I miss putting my left arm around Lauren without thinking).
when your bodily integrity is fucked makes that kind of pain better than more boring but acute pain but I have no idea. I think it's worse to be surprised by intermittent pain than predictable, avoidable pain. But there isn't a number you can put on that. I genuinely do not know what they're asking.
November 29, 2025 at 12:32 PM
when your bodily integrity is fucked makes that kind of pain better than more boring but acute pain but I have no idea. I think it's worse to be surprised by intermittent pain than predictable, avoidable pain. But there isn't a number you can put on that. I genuinely do not know what they're asking.
And the question I heard most often was, "Rate the pain from 1 to 10." Wtf does this mean and why are these answers helpful? I don't know what it's like to be eaten alive by tigers or have my arm chainsawed off. Is it 10 *in my experience?* It wouldn't surprise me if the hormones your body dumps in
November 29, 2025 at 12:29 PM
And the question I heard most often was, "Rate the pain from 1 to 10." Wtf does this mean and why are these answers helpful? I don't know what it's like to be eaten alive by tigers or have my arm chainsawed off. Is it 10 *in my experience?* It wouldn't surprise me if the hormones your body dumps in
I've been dealing with it for 6 months. Recovery can take 6 months to 3 years; almost always physical therapy. Surgery is a last resort and comes with risks of its own.
Getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night for years while also going through PT is... not ideal. I talked to a surgeon re options ...
Getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night for years while also going through PT is... not ideal. I talked to a surgeon re options ...
November 29, 2025 at 12:26 PM
I've been dealing with it for 6 months. Recovery can take 6 months to 3 years; almost always physical therapy. Surgery is a last resort and comes with risks of its own.
Getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night for years while also going through PT is... not ideal. I talked to a surgeon re options ...
Getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night for years while also going through PT is... not ideal. I talked to a surgeon re options ...
...inside the ball and socket of your shoulder becomes scarred and gradually starts to restrict motion and become painful. Diabetes is a major risk factor. You become prone to painful & unpredictable flare-ups, but it also interferes with sleep, & it becomes painful to raise the affected arm much...
November 29, 2025 at 12:23 PM
...inside the ball and socket of your shoulder becomes scarred and gradually starts to restrict motion and become painful. Diabetes is a major risk factor. You become prone to painful & unpredictable flare-ups, but it also interferes with sleep, & it becomes painful to raise the affected arm much...
Was just here to say the same
a black and white photo of a woman sitting at a table with the words we accept you written on the bottom
ALT: a black and white photo of a woman sitting at a table with the words we accept you written on the bottom
media.tenor.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Was just here to say the same
That's almost enough to run one thirty second TV spot for about two seconds, very late at night
November 25, 2025 at 8:40 PM
That's almost enough to run one thirty second TV spot for about two seconds, very late at night
The way I see it, it could go in an uncanny Solaris direction, or it could be a pretty straightforward allegory for, ahem, other situations where one lives among a unified people making a fundamental moral error, and I'm fine either way. I guess it could try for both and that would be interesting.
November 25, 2025 at 1:14 PM
The way I see it, it could go in an uncanny Solaris direction, or it could be a pretty straightforward allegory for, ahem, other situations where one lives among a unified people making a fundamental moral error, and I'm fine either way. I guess it could try for both and that would be interesting.
Well, I knew that, but what are they this time?
November 25, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Well, I knew that, but what are they this time?
Wow, this is super fun! Thanks for giving it a shout out.
November 23, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Wow, this is super fun! Thanks for giving it a shout out.
I'm an American and I'm tired of us, too
November 22, 2025 at 6:52 AM
I'm an American and I'm tired of us, too
I love Saint, but he'd better ask Santa for new gloves
November 17, 2025 at 10:59 AM
I love Saint, but he'd better ask Santa for new gloves
It became a really different project and I have better things to do than study it that much. I don't want to play in a meta that deep, and I missed the camaraderie of my old group. So after getting beaten badly 4-5 games in a row but not enough to actually be ejected, I don't play TI4 anymore. 4/4
November 16, 2025 at 11:10 AM
It became a really different project and I have better things to do than study it that much. I don't want to play in a meta that deep, and I missed the camaraderie of my old group. So after getting beaten badly 4-5 games in a row but not enough to actually be ejected, I don't play TI4 anymore. 4/4
...& started playing it with people who had mental decision trees with chesslike rigor for openings based on faction & adjacent skips, who played in the meta much better, and the game got boring. I kept sticking my neck out early and then promptly losing the "don't attack me, attack them" game. 3/4
November 16, 2025 at 11:08 AM
...& started playing it with people who had mental decision trees with chesslike rigor for openings based on faction & adjacent skips, who played in the meta much better, and the game got boring. I kept sticking my neck out early and then promptly losing the "don't attack me, attack them" game. 3/4