LTS

Truly. Becoming desensitized to the world around you. Being free from your own mind. Thank you for sharing that. To that end I think it has a lot to do with anyone who sees the world so dramatically different. We are social creatures and we seek to be accepted and part of the group. For those who see things differently it's harder to be accepted. Many times my way of expressing thoughts turn people away. The things I see are not seen by others. The way I approach certain scenarios is different and I notice that people struggle to understand that. I'm not sure rationality goes away. It's just trumped, extremely hard, by the blackness. When I'm not feeling well I know I am being ridiculous. You tell yourself there's no reason to feel like this. You tell yourself that there are happy things. You tell yourself that your family matters, that your friends matter. The problem is that it doesn't do anything for you. It doesn't register. They are like the words of some unknown scientist performing an observation on my life and jotting them down in his notebook. They are true, but have no meaning to me. There's no connection to it at all. We have all seen some act of kindness that has filled us with great feelings. Let's use the puppy scenario (who doesn't love puppies?). During those bad periods you look at that puppy and you say, "Damn he's cute. I should probably smile about it. I should laugh a little bit at his antics. I should pet him. Look at him, he's all full of life and happiness." Then you say, "So I smiled, I laughed, I pet him. I'm not happy. I'm nothing. What the hell is wrong with me? Why am I like this? Why can't I enjoy the puppy as much as everyone else? Why is life so mean to me? Why can't I just enjoy this one simple thing?" Usually about there the stress begins, the issues begin, your mind begins racing at about a million irrational thoughts per second and it tires itself out. I'll begin yawning.. all I want to do is sleep. I want to sleep and hope that sleep brings more comfort. I'm thankful that these days those bad periods happen extremely infrequently. They have still shaped who I am. I speak about them because I accept them and I let myself know they are real. It's somewhat therapeutic to be certain. I've never been medicated because I never wanted to lose the parts of my mind that make me who I am. I've read this about a lot of others as well. I've read about those who have and then stopped and how dead the world feels. I don't want that. On good days being alive to the world is something fantastic and I would hate to lose that. I read the "study" a few months ago about the mass shooting and the ties that they all supposedly had to these drugs. I don't want that. I don't want to feel like the world isn't real, to have some kind of filter put in place that reduces its importance to me. I've never had thoughts about wanting to harm others. I've never blamed them for my lot in life. I don't know if those who commit mass shootings had those thoughts prior to medication. I'm just convinced that nature made me this way and so I can use natural means to combat it. One last thing.. I mentioned how the pressure to perform might actually harm Robin Williams. Right after posting that I came across this article. Take it for what it's worth. - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11030100/Robin-Williams-friend-reveals-actor-resented-having-to-do-new-Mrs-Doubtfire.html

I think it's natural to be disappointed because we look at this from a selfish point of view. We see him as leaving the world with one less talent, we see him leaving his kids, his wife, without the man they need. I think that's a natural viewpoint to take. I think it's impossible to understand fully because those who commit suicide cannot come back to tell us just how bad it was. Those who get to the brink and are saved may not have been as bad off as those who are not saved. We can't say for certain. I think anyone who has felt the desire to commit suicide, attempted it and failed, etc. are in a better position to understand how deep the rabbit hole goes but it's not to say they can fully appreciate the actual depth because they never hit the bottom. For someone like Robin Williams it's safe to say that he battled this for a long time. He was 63, and that's a lot of years of living with and battling against the illness. It's hard to picture anything from another person's viewpoint and truly understand the feeling that they feel. Each situation is bound to be different. Ultimately, it becomes too much to fend off and mentally and physically you can't take it anymore. The only option is to end it. I suppose another way to try and personalize it would be to think of yourself in a situation where you have an incurable condition that results in death. You're going to die. This is not avoidable, no miracles, no hope, no anything. You might come to surrender to that thought and you'd say, I will live each day to its fullest and do all I can in my time remaining. Now, consider this additional fact, for the last 3 months of your life you will be completely debilitated, you won't be able to move, you won't really be able to interact with the world, you'll always feel exhausted and you're mind will continually be working against you. You'll be in physical pain that is so horrible you just continually scream out in agony. Do you want to live at this point? At the most severe points of depression most of what I described above can be experienced. Your mind has been working against you so hard that you have no energy left to fight it. You withdraw from everything and you just want to sleep. But sleep isn't enough because your mind torments you then as well. Your sleep is awful, you start the downward spiral. It's manufactured stress. Your digestive system works against you. Your eyes are too tired and light bothers you. You don't want any form of stimulation, noise, smells, they all begin to bug you. Your nervous system fails you and you become numb and in pain at the same time. Your heartbeat is irregular and none of your systems feel as though they are operating in harmony. Instead, your body feels like its pulling you apart. At some point it's all too much. We should be grateful for those who pull out of that. It can happen and it's a strange thing. It's like searching around a completely black room the size of Jupiter and by chance you find the exit. It's a pretty amazing feeling. But you never escape the darkness fully. It's there to pull you back and you have to continually battle it, one way or another. You have good days, weeks, years, and then boom, there it is again, consuming you. Everything in the world working against you, you doubt yourself and everything. For what it's worth, this is my quick way of describing most of my life. I've been to the edge and was saved. it was a purely random act by someone (I do not even know who, to this day) who alerted someone else to my feelings and approached me about it. It wasn't what this person said to me that mattered. It was that someone had mentioned me to them, and for whatever reason that let me find the door. After that I used to think anyone who committed suicide was ultimately weak and I was very mad at them for doing it. I used to feel amazing about having overcome such darkness. I felt this way for a long time, over a decade. It was great. And then.. one day, trigger, boom, blackness approaching. I then realized that it never goes away. It's there, a part of you, forever and no matter how small it is, the fuel to help it grow will always be around. No matter how hard anyone tries to keep it from igniting, it can happen. So, I have a totally different view on it these days. I see the death of Robin Williams as a great loss for the creativity of society. It's a great loss for his wife and kids and those lives he directly touched. At the same time, his life of battling is over, that constant reminder that the blackness is there and could come back is over. The stress of dealing with it is gone. He's no longer going to suffer. In some ways, that's the best news we can get. The outpouring of support is immense for him and I think people would like to believe that had Robin Williams been able to see that he would have regretted his decision. I think otherwise. I think Robin Williams would have felt even more pressure to continue his battle. He would have added to his depression the thoughts that he will let millions of people down if he stopped performing. If he stopped battling his inner demons. As far as we know, it was that ongoing support for his talents and the love of those around him that kept him here as long as it did. We should be grateful he battled as long as he could. He will be missed, but his work will never disappear from existence and all those he touched will in some way pass along his lessons to others. His movies and work will continue to impact people for many more years and those people will look upon his work and maybe even learn more about him because of it and they will be touched and carry on those lessons.

If it buys as much as $1 million does today I'll take it!

Well, I think it will always be outrageous :) It's still insane to me. And I think that's it.. I just don't see the economy staying strong enough to support that growth rate. And by economy I mean the US economy...

Here goes the NHL again.. player salaries are jumping up tremendously. They got themselves in trouble before with this. Insane. They better hope their growth continues because if that cap number doesn't keep going up there are going to be some teams with delicate budgets. No way Subban is worth $9MM. Just can't get there at all. He's good, potentially will be great but not $9MM great.

MattPie - absolutely. I believe the labeling requirements on beer are stricter (for whatever reason) it needs to have it's originating location. it doesn't appear to be the same with the whiskey. A lot of people are surprised when they realize where the beer actually comes from.

So, I just jumped in here and may have missed if this was ever mentioned, but I'm not a die hard whiskey fan (I'm trying). I found it interesting: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/28/your-craft-whiskey-is-probably-from-a-factory-distillery-in-indiana.html It goes on to discuss how many small batch "craft" whiskey distillers are nothing more than marketing companies that are buying from a set of recipes and then bottling the output. Pretty sketchy. A long list of the distillers and bottlers is referenced in that article, that list is here: http://recenteats.blogspot.com/p/the-complete-list-of-american-whiskey.html Still determining if some of the one's I like are listed there or not.

There's a model there named "Lotta Hintsa" Really...

This is a decision and question that will be decided 9 games into the season. If it's decided before that we should all be concerned.

You don't get the English filter, you get the Belgian filter. :) Translational differences I think. It's not the same over there! :)

I find it interesting.. perhaps there is some record of the talk around Datsyuk back then. I would think that no one would have high hopes for him at the time. He was small, went undrafted for a few years and did not light up the ice. I think this is what makes it hard to predict. I don't know what was written back then... it just seems reasonable that people could be saying the same thing about Girgensons now that people said about Datsyuk back then and they were picked over 100 spots apart in the draft.

The visual I get from "two globes with a sword between them" is definitely not something we should use for the "Spacies". Back to your regularly scheduled programming..

I think.. if you wanted to feel worse about things you should list the number of chances each city has had at winning a title. Like you referenced, some cities have only had 20 or so shots whereas Buffalo would have had many more than that. Of course 0 is 0 but not having won in 69 attempts and not having won in 20 attempts makes things look so much worse! :)

So he'll be an asset in the 3 on 3 portion of the AHL overtime? Cool! (yea.. I snarked). It's good to see he's playing well. But in a 3 on 3 there's space right or did they shrink the ice?

He can.. because he gives zero #### about logic. Ima sen you a msg n it will go sumfin lik dis. For what it's worth.. "naked strut" wins.

They assume he is responsible for the beer? Stupid meddling owners..

Good points. I'm certainly not trying to insinuate it can't be done. I'm curious if a team will get handcuffed at some point. Agreed. Teams have jettisoned players they couldn't afford but it's usually done before they hit free agency. I don't know otherwise, but I would think the Ducks moved Bobby Ryan because they wanted Perry and Getzlaf locked up. So move Ryan because he'd demand a high salary as well and get back some pieces to work with. The Blackhawks have to move someone. They are over the cap right now. It has been rumored they are going to move Sharp. So, they would be giving up some talent at this point even though the Toews and Kane salaries don't hit the book until the year after. It really depends on the cap growth rate right? Before this recent change it used to grow about $5m/year. That is fair amount to sign a player. However, back then players upper salaries were $7-$8m. The $10M salary sets a new level and I think the more skilled players will be pushing for $6-7 ranges which could pose a problem if the cap only grows at a $5m/year pace.

Can we definitively say that at this point? Currently Kane a Toews make a respectable $6.3M but certainly not anything that will break the bank. The new contracts are incredibly rich. They've been able to achieve what you stated up to this point but I really wonder how they will do in the future. Frankly, I am waiting to see if teams like the Ducks and Blackhawks get handcuffed by these contracts. You don't expect players like Getzlaf, Perry, Kane, and Toews to decline too much but it's hard to say. Even then, can you afford enough talent around those two to make it work. You might get lucky with some of the young guys you bring in but eventually there won't be money available for them. It may be the cap keeps going up and eliminates that concern per se, but I'll be curious to see how it plays out before I call them a model. Up to this point I would definitely call them a model however.

still chuckling a few responses later... book me a seat on the charter.

Despite being called the armpit of America and all the other crap. There will still be Sabres season ticket holders who sell their tickets to Leafs fan. And that, my forum compatriots, is a real travesty. Imagine the joy of having the Leafs fans booing your player in his home rink loud enough to make a difference. Sigh.

It should be Arizona. Regier is there. You know he wants Roy back!

I feel like I had gone through this thread... but I can't recall us having a discussion on this. If the Sabres end up with 2 of the top 4 picks in the draft next year. Do they only use the highest of those picks and perhaps trade the other and get some immediate talent? I'm thinking that if I had 1/2 I would pick McDavid and then the sweepstakes for 2 would have to be awesome. There's little doubt the Sabres could get another team's first rounder as well as a couple of established roster players that would boost them up quickly. I know it's easy to say they could have McDavid and Eichel.. but do they need both?

Yea.. I was backing out of my driveway when I heard it on the radio. I shut the radio off. He objects to being called the voice of the Sabres as he believes that is reserved for Ted Darling. But ######.. he's voice 1a then. Get well RJ.. having you around to call even 1 game will make the season that much better.

Or is it they want to keep Hodgson and talk up Ennis hoping to deal him? Ennis needs a contract. Are they trying to move Hodgson to save money on signing Ennis (no, they don't NEED to do it, but are they trying to keep a low payroll this year) Would they move Hodgson because he's on a contract that they don't like and wasn't signed by Murray. All real possibilities.

After the insanity today it's amazing to think that the Islanders big moves amounted to the signing of TJ Brennan, Cory Conacher, and Chad Johnson. I'm beginning to wonder if there is a chemical leak on Long Island. They might be in a better position to hit rock bottom than the Sabres. One could only imagine the Sabres and Islanders finishing 29 and 30. That would be beyond ridiculous even if the Sabres DIDN'T win the lottery. Oi.