#the alzheimer's game

[eleanorblue]

how in god's name do I tell my mother:

"the reason your mother is not drinking anything is because she is 88, has stage 6 dementia, has about a million blood clots, has heart failure, and is dying"

"the reason your mother is refusing food is because she is 88, has stage 6 dementia, has about a million blood clots, has heart failure, and is dying"

"the reason your mother is not going to the bathroom is because she is 88, has stage 6 dementia, has about a million blood clots, has heart failure, and is dying"

"the reason your mother is completely delirious and partially aphasic is because she is 88, has stage 6 dementia, has about a million blood clots, has heart failure, and is dying"

"taking her to the hospital will not actually change this, because she is 88, has stage 6 dementia, has about a million blood clots, has heart failure, and is dying. it will just make her miserable."

because if someone told me that about MY mother I would punch them in the face.

and also, what if I'm wrong?? I'm a scientist, but I'm not a doctor. I think her symptoms indicate that her body shutting down and we shouldn't take her to the goddamn hospital where she'll be miserable and scared and agitated, but what if there's some problem that can be easily treated? then she can live longer...being a miserable and scared 88 year old with stage 6 dementia, about a million blood clots, and heart failure living in a memory care facility where nothing makes sense to her.

is that fucking worth it to her?

it's worth it to my mother.

and who am I to say what "worth it" is when I'm talking about a fucking human life.

who the fuck is anyone to say what "worth it" is.

anyway, my mother and brother have a flat tire (and maybe other car damage idk) in a town 130 miles away. my grandmother is dying, probably. or maybe not. but even if she's not dying, you know, she's still fucking dying, because she is 88, has stage 6 dementia, has about a million blood clots, and has heart failure.

and as a total fucking side note, I have to defend my master's thesis on Monday, as in this Monday, as in my defense is in 39 hours, and also I have to do this defense on that date at that time or I won't be able to graduate.

I think I'm gonna go raise the house Defcon level.

[panoffrying]

Watched these two turn from friends to lovers over time in my Cult and I’m so happy for them! Happy late Valentine’s Day 🕷️💜🐜

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Thinking about the complexities of a "losing your magic" story in a DnD (and similar) scenerio because what it means completly depends of your class. Because while not everyone is born with magic, everyone can have it.

How for a sorcerer losing their magic is genuinally about losing a part of themselfs, to suddently not being able to do something they always did. Losing your magic is like sudently losing a limb or one of your senses. And how besides being always theirs, their magic is ancestral how it can mean losing a connection with a part of their family history.

How for paladins is about morals. About breaking their vows whatever they are, dealing with the fact that they changed or maybe that morals were always way more complicated than they thought they were. (The Oathbreaker subclass changes things but I think it can work if Oathbreaker is one of the ways to embrace the emotional conflict that took your magic). Is almost phylosofical. Is the what makes Thor worthy?

How for druids, clerics and warlocks are different levels of losing a connection. For druids is with nature, with a force beyond their comprehension but that became a part of you for so long and who are you without this feeling? For warlocks is so many things, is losing a boss, a friend, is the price of freedom, is the loss of whatever you had with the sentient being that gave you powers. And for clerics is a mix, is about if their gods are feelings like nature or beings that talk to them, but whatever it is, for clerics, for clerics is a lack of faith. Is about what happens when you doubt your god, when you can't belive it or in it. Is also about what happens when your god doesn't belive in you.

For bards and mages is the loss of a skill. The bards might have the loss of their playing or voice but even if not, even if is just the magic that is gone, well they, just like the mages, studied hard to be abble to do magic. If for a sorcerer is like losing a limb, for them is like waking up in the morning and noticing your accent changed or that you don't speak a language you once did anymore, is trying to ride the same bicycle you used to go to work everyday and noticing you just doesn't know how.

[pandaemoniumminiatures]

Frostgrave Diorama Charity Competition for Alzheimer’s Society

*sharing appreciated*

Paul Cooke – Pandaemonium Miniatures

I have created a special Frostgrave-themed diorama, ‘Yelen and Mirika Semova vs. the Necromancer’ to offer as the prize in a competition with all proceeds going to Alzheimer's Society in memory of my dad.

The diorama represents approximately 30 hours of planning, building and painting, and I am very pleased with it and very grateful for the support of those credited below.

I hope the diorama finds a new home with someone who will display it in pride-of-place.

To be in with a chance of winning, please make a donation of a minimum of £5 to the JustGiving page, include your name and contact information, and use the additional comments box on the JustGiving page to answer the following question:

Who is the author of Frostgrave?

Terms and conditions (also on JustGivingPage)

• Cost is £5 per answer attempt - if you wish to donate more, thank you for your generosity.

If you would like more chances to win, then please do so in separate transactions with separate guesses.

• Please only add your answer to the JustGiving comment box, do not answer the question on any of my social media posts as it won’t count.

• Please make sure you select to share your contact information so that I can contact you if you are the winner.

• Please do not select Gift Aid, as the donations are part of a competition and Gift Aid is not permitted.

• Open worldwide – I can cover UK postage but overseas entrants must be willing to cover the cost of shipping if they win

• Competition closes at midnight (UK time) on Friday 1st September 2023

• The winner will be selected at random from those who have answered correctly, and the winner will be announced on Sunday 3rd September 2023 via my social media accounts.

Credits for collaborations and sources of materials:

Photography: Dave Shipley

Miniatures from North Star Military Figures Frostgrave Range

Steps and summoning gate from Fenris Games

Walnut plinth by Tim Fitch of Miniature-Heroes

Inscription Plate by Versatile Terrain

Ladder from SPELLCROW

Ivy from Rival Crafts - Unique Gamer Scenics

Additional publicity: John Wombat (Shadows of Centralis Magazine), John Treadaway (Miniature Wargames Magazine), Nick Eyre (North Star Figures)

Windows: Fairy Bridge Woodcraft

Invaluable support from Zena Jones (Alzheimer’s Society)

Design, construction and painting: Paul Cooke (Pandaemonium Miniatures)

[andromedasummer]

finished my crochet cup holder and sewed up lunas ears, head and sewed them together and have started on crocheting a cactus which is pretty damn good considering i spent nearly all of saturday sleeping to recover from work and the family emergency happening rn

[ramblingoak]

12 & 22 for the horror asks my beloved friendo 💜

12. a horror movie that stuck with you for weeks after you watched it (give a reason if youd like to):

The Taking of Deborah Logan stuck with me for a bit. I wouldn't say the movie actually scared me all that much, but the subject matter hit a little close to home. In the movie a group of students begin to shoot a documentary about someone's mother that has begun to suffer from Alzheimers (and then being a horror movie some supernatural elements get mixed in).

22. a horror character that actually creeps you out/scares you:

No matter how old I get Tim Curry as Pennywise in the television version of IT will always scare the hell out of me. Maybe something more recent would be the group from The Strangers. Hearing one of them say "because you were home" when they were asked why they were there always pops in my head at the worst times XD. This is also why I don't answer my damn door if I'm not expecting anyone.

Thank you friendo!

horror ask game

[designernishiki]

oh baby I knew it from the fuckin moment the addc was introduced that there’s just no damn way they DIDNT have some legally sketchy shit going on with the alzheimers/dementia patients and unethical clinical trials. I feel so vindicated right now

[soldier-poet-king]

My great grandmother passed away last night. She was old, and very sick, and she lasted months longer than the doctors expected, but it's going to hit my father hard, esp because he just had (minor-ish) surgery and couldn't travel to see her before she passed / won't be able to make the funeral

[eleanorblue]

We saw Kinky Boots last week, and friends, never in my life have I cried that hard during a musical.

Spoilers for Kinky Boots, Derry Girls, Stranger Things, and, uh, Pokémon Violet?

We bought the tickets like three months ago, and then three days before the show I suddenly thought “Hm, isn’t there a part where Lola sings to her dying estranged father?“

I looked it up, and there is in fact that part! Not only that, Charlie’s dad dies in like the first five minutes and one of the themes of the musical is Charlie filling his dad’s shoes (lol) and trying to make him proud/do what he wants with his life/be like him/not be like him.

“Gee,” I thought. “Better warn my brother. That might bring up some stuff.” But the tickets were expensive, particularly for a regional theatre, so off we went anyway.

So we got through most of the musical, and I was enjoying it (great show!), and I was a little on edge due to all the Dad™️ stuff but it was okay, and I knew we were coming to the Hard Part…and then LAUREN came out and started talking about how she felt when her dad died, and all I could think was “Jesus Christ, is everyone’s dad in this show dead??” That’s about when I started crying.

Right after that seen is Lola’s song to her estranged dad. If you don’t know it, it’s called “Hold Me In Your Heart” and it’s essentially about loving a difficult parent despite their flaws and needing them to love you too. I’d look it up. It’s worth a listen.

So Lola sang her song, and I actually full-out cried through it (I tried to be quiet, but I’m sure the people behind me noticed and goodness knows what they thought was wrong with me). Then a light came up on her dad sitting in a wheelchair, pretty zoned out. Lola walked over to him, says “It was good to see you, Daddy,” and put her hand on his shoulder. He didn’t say anything, didn’t really react, but then his hand came up to cover hers.

Lola visibly choked up, said “I love you,” and then left.

My brother and I didn’t, like, perform a drag show for our dying estranged dad. But, uh, the non-responsiveness? The hand coming up? THAT WAS KINDA LIKE WATCHING OUR GOODBYE WITH OUR DAD ONSTAGE.

So I was pretty much gone, and couldn’t really enjoy the finale.

My brother was…okay. He handled it better than I did, and he squeezed my hand throughout the entire scene. We react to different things.

The show was fantastic, by the way. Excellent cast. Lauren was amazing. I wish I had a recording of her song. It just so happened to be deeply personally triggering for me!

I feel like media is full of dead dads lately. I watched Season 3 of Derry Girls? SURPRISE, A DAD DIES! I played Pokémon Violet, a children’s game? SURPRISE, THE ESTRANGED DAD IS ACTUALLY DEAD! I got caught up on Seasons 3 and 4 of Stranger Things? SURPRISE HOPPER IS DEAD* AND OH LOOK ELEVEN FOUND A LETTER HE WROTE FOR HER BEFORE HE DIED! I went to see Kinky Boots! SURPRISE, EVERYONE’S DAD IS DEAD OR DYING!

Or maybe it’s just the frequency illusion. I think about dead dads (well, really one specific dead dad) a lot, I notice dead dads more.

There’s not really a point to this wall of text. Kinky Boots is a great show. Grief is weird. I should maybe avoid musicals with estranged-dead-dad-goodbye scenes.

Which is too bad, as I’d really like to see Fun Home.

*yes I know he's not dead that's not the point

[moved-2-koiranliha]

someone on reddit brought up the idea of starting d&d campaigns for nursing home residents and i. i just. 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[holopiloted]

     i really like how i made an ic headcanon post where elliott’s answering a bunch of interview questions while at his birthday party that all of his friends ( the legends ) showed up to and then respawn released their first chapter of the season the very next day and it’s all about how elliott threw a party and nobody showed up —

[arypurple]

[thirtean]

" you didn't actually let her keep the money, right ? " - @tahitiwoke

[ectogeranium]

I’m gonna be 1000% real with you all this evening. My memory is absolute shit. It is so bad, that I have entered thembo stages of stupid, and I mean that with complete sincerity.

It is.. terrifying. And I’m really trying to deflect with humor, but the fact is, I’m losing more each day. I’ve lost so much from the past years, where I used to be as sharp as a damn tack.

Call it age, and getting older, but I’m 20. I shouldn’t be losing this much this fast.

It worries me. My parents think I’m joking or talking about someone else when I bring up my memory loss to them. I usually drop the subject after they deflect.

I haven’t voiced my concerns to anyone else until now, since I’m writing this.

If we ever talk, and I forget something, I am so so sorry, and I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of an “I forgot about that” text. It sucks. I didn’t want to forget, it just.. happened. So if I ever do that to any of you, I’m being up front and telling you right now that my memory is awful, and it will lapse.

Idk dude.

[beachboysnatural]

I think that I need to go on a badly planned road trip down the West Coast with my childhood best friend this summer