Quote from: LucasM on December 06, 2013, 10:45:46 PM in the Animated GIF thread[[
Previous spoilers removed except the first one, which was quoting what I'd said in what is now the post directly above this one.]]
Trying to keep my responses short and directly in response to what others wrote about my prior comments. Still spoilering just because they aren't animated GIFs. Added bold 'titles' so the new stuff could be found more easily.
The very next thing [[in the one and only spoiler in these Animated GIF-related posts]] is my comments from above that were quoted in the two [[posts]] below:Spoilering this because this is on the verge(?) of hijacking the thread. This is not a spoilered GIF. This is discussing the 'falling down' GIF on the previous page, with my responding to some comments since.
One thing in his favor, it was a padded chair that gave way some, so not like he hit something solid like a table or hard floor.
Well... yes and no. Because he didn't hit a hard object there will be less focal damage. But he hit something soft with a rather severe rebound 'snap'. Because of that, it means a few things. It means that he actually suffered twice as many impacts overall (his brain slamming into his skull when he hit the chair, and then again when he stopped falling when his shoulder hits the floor). That snapping back and forth then stopping at the floor means that the grinding of the brain on the inside of the skull, and the increased rotational forces (from the twisting of his head to the side on impact with the chair) would result in a much greater degree of scraping of the superficial layers of neurons in the brain [those responsible for the final correlation of information from deeper neuronal layers] and likely a greater degree of axonal tearing than if he just was hit one solid blow with its rebound.
The double impact from hitting the chair then stopping at the floor, plus the increased scraping and tearing would result in more difficulty doing, well, pretty much everything. So if he'd hit something hard it would've been massive damage to a more focal area (with somewhat less damage to the area directly opposite of that area [contracoup], and less scraping of the brain in the skull). Instead he's left with 'lesser' global damage. Honestly, having had accidents that did each, I'd rather have the single focal area than the global damage [depending where the 'single focal area' was, some areas are virtually impossible to work around]. With focal damage, when most other capacities are still relatively functional, it is more likely to be easier to work on the area that is 'singularly' affected, because there are some brain functions left relatively intact to compensate with. The global difficulty (from a rebound and a 'soft' landing) basically leaves no functioning unaffected, so there are much more limited resources available intact anywhere in the brain to try to regain any functioning (extreme analogy: the difference between chronically forgetting where you put your keys and being fall-down drunk all the time; you can use other brain areas to train yourself to set up a way to store your keys in a place you can find them, if falling-down drunk there's nothing that you can focus on enough to do them well). [Keep in mind, with my clarity here on the boards, this is after 14 1/2 years of working my ass off to get my writing to be usually coherent, losing many friends in the process from things not coming out right.]
I think Lucas cares quite a bit.
Yeah, it's a subject that means quite a bit to him.
Yes, QV, I do care quite a bit. And yes, JU, it does mean a lot to me. Thank you for recognizing that. And it was enough of both of those for me to have devoted years of my life to gain the education to work with people who had similar injuries and spend years doing so. Then it started to mean a great deal to me in a different way because it happened to me. The combination of the two result in me being rather vocal about such things, both so people can potentially protect themselves better from the possibility of themselves having such an injury (or getting help if they do), and so they can understand what those with such injuries actually go through.
I found a GIF that made me laugh, so I shared in attempt to make others laugh. If you presume I had any other intention than that your wrong. If your offended I'm more than happy to not post another GIF of a dude falling.
I didn't presume you to have any other intention than to make others laugh. [I don't think there is anyone on the boards who would deliberately do something malicious just for the hell of it.] And others have given 'Like's to similar types of 'injury-based' JPGs and GIFs in the past, so there are other people on the boards that also feel such things are funny. [Quite a lot the world over, actually, or such things would not get into GIFs and be circulated on the internet in the first place.]
And I'm not offended. Yes, it triggered my PTSD, and I had to take extra anxiety meds to counter that, but that is my problem, not yours. I have NO expectation or desire for people to censor their public behavior just to keep me (and other, less vocal, traumatic injury survivors) from being triggered. I believe firmly in free speech. I don't like everyone's 'speech', any more than I expect others to like any or all of mine.
But because it affected me so strongly, and because of what I know about the subject, and because I see what appears to be a lack of empathy in the world at large (to make 'injury humor' something that a great many people the world over appear to enjoy [Three Stooges anyone?]), I took the opportunity to try to educate people about what was actually going on in that particular GIF. To share information with people that 'pratfalls' where there is the likelihood of others getting injured in ways that are likely to diminish their quality of life from that point on might not actually be funny. If people choose not to take in the information or accept that, that is their choice. I'm not here, writing all this, to change people's beliefs. [Providing information is different from expecting other people to act on that information.] I am here presenting people with some less commonly known information about events they may see. How they react, and what they do with it - both with what I say, and to seeing similar events in the future - is their choice.
I think that's enough for me on this. I've been having quite a rough time (I've been well past my capacity) since the power went out a couple weeks back and I had a suspected broken toe. For my functioning alone I likely shouldn't have written anything in the first place. Too bad the frontal lobes (self-monitoring of behavior) are the first thing to go when I'm past capacity.
I had a stroke last year. That's a stroke STROKE for those of you who can't spell. I got treatment quickly and even took part in a charity walk afterwards. I also learned during my treatment that I have some brain damage from a "prior incident" that I was not even aware of, and I am on medication for the rest of my life. There have been jokes about stroke victims in MST3K and (I think) even last night. Guess what? I laughed at them: because they were not directed at me and because they were funny. Rifftrax and MST3K are about humor, and sometimes that infringes on territory I consider "mine" (disabilities, my English origins etc) , but it's all fair game because it's comedy and it's equal opportunity. EVERYONE gets their fair share, and I am DAMNED if I am going to rage quit this forum because someone hurt my feelings.
My response to Uncle Des' comments:I am sorry about your stroke and past head injury. I'm glad you got treatment quickly for the stroke, as it likely prevented potentially much worse condition for you later. I hope the meds you are on help with whichever symptoms you ended up with from the combined stroke and head injury.
With what you said at the end of your post, nor would I "rage quit the forum because someone hurt my feelings". Nor were my feelings hurt by what was posted by anyone on the subject if you read what I wrote. [If you were just commenting in general and quoting my lengthy comments for context, rather than specifically addressing what I'd written, then 'nevermind'. I am currently functioning at a very concrete level so since others had been directly responding to my statements, I assumed you were too.]
And what I was commenting on was
an actual injury that had been filmed and was being played back for an apparent comedic effect, not verbal humor
about an injury. There is a
massive difference. I consider a video of someone clearly getting a head injury as a milder version of the same type of film that includes the Faces of Death series of DVDs that I became aware of about 15 years ago, and snuff films. Both head injuries and death can devastate a life and the lives of all those related to or friends with the person involved (and, as the massive number of post-Iraq vet experiences have shown in the last few years, and as recent publicized experiences of retired football players demonstrate, the life devastation from head injuries can themselves often lead to suicide [I have mentioned before on the boards that for about the first five years after the third head injury there wasn't a day that went by where I didn't either wish that the accident had killed me or thought about 'finishing the job' (killing) myself]). The context of the head injury ('pratfall' or 'being hit by a car bomb' or 'being in an auto accident') is irrelevant to the fact that I think actual head injuries are not funny.
I have, some will likely recall, made jokes about head and spinal injuries on the boards here, including jokes about my own, and I don't generally find them bothersome in RiffTrax or, previously, in MST3K.
* Although, granted, if the comments are based on inaccurate information, I don't find them funny, just as I don't find inaccurate jokes about any
other subject that demonstrate an ignorance of that subject funny. But not finding inaccurate brain injury jokes funny is more from my professional background than it is from having had three of them myself.
But seeing an
actual injury occurring in a video? Yes, that bothers me. And, personally, I think seeing an actual injury taking place should not be seen as funny. That's my opinion. Others have different opinions. If their thinking it is funny is from their not actually understanding what is happening in what they are seeing, then possibly my explaining what is going on may help. If they understand what is going on and still think someone getting a possibly lifetime debilitating injury is funny, then that is their business.
Like I said: I only share information I think others may appreciate or learn from. What they do with it is their choice. [When I was a practicing therapist and doing this, I was once told I was, "giving away the farm". That pissed me off, as educating people by itself is easily more effective than trying to do therapy with those ignorant of what is going on internally.]
* (re: accuracy in MST3K comment: I found the 'Brain Guys' song 'When I Held Your Brain in My Arms' absolutely hilarious because of the wonderful puns they made from the names for different brain areas.)
First of all I can empathize with you Lucas because I have a severe spinal injury/chronic pain and knowing how you feel about that brand of humor will make me think twice about posting that type a of GIF again because making you or any of my other friends on this forum feel bad or anxious is the last thing I want to do. Second I appreciate humor of all kinds and I really don't feel bad in any way about finding that GIF funny, I do, however, feel bad for making you feel anxious so I'm sorry for that.
Thank you for the empathy. I'm sorry you've had spinal problems and chronic pain too. It sucks, as you well know to have to think about how you are going to do most every action, or even inaction (such as having to consciously think "is my posture perfect?" every time one sits down).
If you find such GIFs funny, and others here clearly do also, go ahead and post them. It is, as I said,
my problem I react to them, not yours. If you feel mixed about it even with my assurance, then you could do what Relaxing Dragon started for GIFs of car accidents (which I greatly appreciate): he spoilered them with 'car accident' as a label for the spoiler, to explain what was inside. If you want to do that, that is fine, and I would personally appreciate it greatly.
But, honestly, while I appreciate the thought, out of the couple/few dozen people who post here, I think it would be mighty selfish of me to expect to get singled out for special treatment by others on the boards. And a large part of me basically feels the same way about that that I do about the trend toward 'childproofing the country'. [i.e. that childproofing the country goes WAY too far to potentially protect a small minority, while inconveniencing and 'dumbing down' many others.]
Of course, with this likely near the end of this discussion, I just now thought I probably should have moved the discussion to the thread linked to in my sig line with my first comment, as it would have fit there quite a bit more than this extended discussion in a GIF thread.
Sorry, Lembach, for hijacking the [[Animated GIF]] thread for the last couple pages.

If you'd like I can move all my posts from the last couple pages over to the Head Injury Info post linked in my sig line. Just let me know.
[[He did request it, so I moved all my posts here. Only adding the things in double brackets like this and removing spoiler functions.]]