phatj wrote:My cat may have cancer. She has a huge lump under one "armpit" that we first noticed a couple of months ago and seems to be growing. In addition she's lost about two pounds since last year, though she eats well and seems to be healthy overall.

I took her to the vet tonight and the vet is recommending that the lump be removed and then biopsied, to the tune of nearly $500. We can come up with the money for that, but the problem is that if it's cancer, there's no way we can afford any kind of meaningful treatment (and I'm not sure I would subject an animal to that even if money weren't an issue). So all the biopsy would do is tell us whether it's cancer, which means we would know that she probably won't be with us much longer, or it's some sort of benign growth in which case we will have wasted the money on having it removed.

We're trying to see if the vet can do a biopsy without removing the lump first. It's right at the surface so getting a needle in it shouldn't be a problem. Then at least we would know what we're dealing with. Maybe if it turns out to be benign we could be convinced it should be removed anyway, but I can't see the point in paying to have a malignant tumor removed (thus subjecting the cat to a lot of distress) when the cancer will probably end up killing her anyway.

I hate having to be so heartless about this. She's a nice cat.

I wish I could give you more hopeful news, but my vet was going to charge me $500 just to biopsy my cat, although she had something suspect inside her mouth, so maybe that's more complicated than dealing with an external lump.

I felt pretty much the same way about treatment (in fact right now I'm just observing this cat, who seems healthy in every way right now). It's a little different in that removal of the lump MIGHT give the cat more comfort and MIGHT help effect a cure, which would make me tend a little more toward doing it. But it's a tough call.

Phight On! wrote:Or I get so bored with myself that I literally just can't do it- I barely ever watch TV besides sports so that doesn't appeal to me- in fact I don't think I've ever posted in that thread and never click on it. I try to read a book or browse the web and I get Charlie Brown's teacher in my ears after a few pages. I have every video game console imaginable yet, can't seem to find a game that interests me. Inevitably I stare at the clock and watch the minutes go by and eventually I just say, "$#@! it I'm going to get some ______ ."

That sounds like ADD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADHD_predo ... nattentive

td11 wrote:

Phight On! wrote:Admit it, both of you guys wanted to add "before he died". .

And TD if you end up at Kal, you are officially dead to me.

Seriously though did anybody get the mob families/drug families analogy ?

i knew you meant drugs, but i didn't know which family was what.

same here

and yes, i was on the borderline of saying "before he died." either way works, really; it's vaguely implied.

td11 wrote:

Phight On! wrote:Admit it, both of you guys wanted to add "before he died". .

And TD if you end up at Kal, you are officially dead to me.

Seriously though did anybody get the mob families/drug families analogy ?

i knew you meant drugs, but i didn't know which family was what.

That really didn't matter actually. I should have probably just used the 5 families from the Godfather (although the Capones are mentioned but not featured in the film) since the standard drug test is 5 panels. I ended up with 6/7 so I said what the fuck.

so i probably need someone to literally beat me until i go back to school. i just cried thinking about doing it. i have no idea what happened. i used to be awesome at school. like, top 1% in grade school and probably top 10% in whatever my private catholic high school (that's not as good as jerz/werthless/harpua's) counts for (but is the same one Trent Steele went to)

so what the fuck do i do now

lethal wrote:That sounds like ADD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADHD_predo ... nattentive

It's actually called jonesing

Once I'm hooked up, I'm a multitasking mutha fucker.

But seriously though I definitely would have been diagnosed sooner if that was the case. I was actually in "gifted and talented" all through elementary school, I took high school courses while in middle school and some college classes while in high school.

Since we're on the subject, though, here's a semi-quick funny story from my senior year. My guidance counselor fucked up one of my classes and I got stuck in some writing class that was actually lower than the course I took and got an A is a junior. I flat out told the guy if you can't fix it I WILL NOT participate in the class at all but I guess there was nothing he could do. I already had enough credits to graduate so I coasted to the finish line The class happened to be the class after lunch- which I always cut to smoke a joint and fuck up a whopper back at my friends house. Technically we actually weren't allowed to leave for lunch because one or two kids got killed crossing Blackwood/Clementon Rd on their way to McDonalds/Taco Bell/Burger King which was right up the street but on the other side of the road, but nobody ever stopped us from pulling in/out of the lot.

Anyway when the teacher would hand out papers I wouldn't even put my name on them- flat out refused. Most of the time I would just go into the classroom and go right to sleep and the dumb bitch teacher would call on me to answer a stupid question. I would say, "Lady, why did you just wake me up? I most likely know the answer but I'm not going to tell you. Now leave me alone- I'm going back to sleep." She did this at least twice a week and then finally I just pretended not to hear her no matter how many times she called my name. She tried everything in her power to get me to participate- like even paired me up with a few people to try and make me feel bad because the rest of the group would lose points because I refused to do anything and nobody had the balls to say anything to me. Admittedly it wasn't fair to them but ultimately it was the teacher's fault because she knew I couldn't care less and wasn't going to do anything despite the guilt trip. Occasionally I would get the BK bombers but the teacher wouldn't let me go to the bathroom. Fine. I would fart so loud and they would stink so bad that she made me sit out in the hallway and then I would just pack up, go drop a deuce, and check out the gym to scope out the freshman meat until the final bell rang. Finally that teacher gave up and would make me sit outside of the classroom permanently but I would just head back to the gym or rub one out or whatever until the last bell which happened to be a study hall. Yeah study hall this. I would sign in and then bounce on out of there asap. I really got a 0 in that class which messed up my GPA as you could imagine but I knew I wasn't going to waste 100K to fail out of a 4 year school like West Virginia (where a few of my friends went and failed out despite taking classes like billiards) or something. They will be paying those loans for a long ass tine. I was perfectly content at a *gasp* community college where I got my Associate's and then went back for a specialized computer tech course that at least got me A+ and Network+ certs which actually meant something back then.

Anyhow my brother has ADD. He can't focus on two things at the same time in his personal life although he does well at work. But as far as school, he couldn't even concentrate on the simplest of standardized tests- after a few minutes he would just do ABBACADABA all the way down the sheet. It got to the point that he didn't have to take those tests anymore.

Ummm... Yeah when he was a senior if he had a substitute teacher they would give him and the other 8 kids in his class coloring books.

Yeah that's really not that funny of a story and I wish the kids on this board would stop making you sound like a legend. You're addicted to drugs and need help. That's not funny, that's awful. I wish you luck, but you don't really want luck. But let's not go pretending this is anything but a car accident.

Powerball jackpots are growing faster since they expanded states. Over 200 mil already, and someone hit a 200 mil+ jackpot back in March.

At around 200 million, I get tempted.

jerseyhoya wrote:Powerball jackpots are growing faster since they expanded states. Over 200 mil already, and someone hit a 200 mil+ jackpot back in March.

I want to know why the cash value to annuity payout is different than the Mega Millions. Currently:

Powerball: Annuity: 212M Cash: 101.9M (48%)

Mega Millions: Annuity: 122M Cash: 74.6M (61%)

Is the annuity period the same?

gpicaro wrote:I want to know why the cash value to annuity payout is different than the Mega Millions. Currently:

Powerball: Annuity: 212M Cash: 101.9M (48%)

Mega Millions: Annuity: 122M Cash: 74.6M (61%)

If you want to know you probably need to dig into details like what their respective periodic payment assumptions are (base for computing the NPV), discount rate assumptions, etc.

Okay, so one of the quasi-homeless dudes that hang out on the loading dock at my work is this skinny short dude, maybe in his forties. We refer to him as the "Drummer from Poison". Long scragly blonde hair, bandanna, sunglasses, denim jacket, skinny jeans and cowboy type boots. He walks around with an 80's style walkman that appears to only play static. He's pleasant to talk to, though he's clearly burned out.

Anyway - pulling into work today, I see him crossing the street behind me - and he's wearing white tights and a black mini-skirt

Barry Jive wrote:so i probably need someone to literally beat me until i go back to school. i just cried thinking about doing it. i have no idea what happened. i used to be awesome at school. like, top 1% in grade school and probably top 10% in whatever my private catholic high school (that's not as good as jerz/werthless/harpua's) counts for (but is the same one Trent Steele went to)

so what the $#@! do i do now

Was this a real cry a la a sports columnist's dog dying, or a figurative one?

TenuredVulture wrote:Is the annuity period the same?

I never thought to even check that.

Powerball 29 years

Mega Millions 26 years

I don't know what's worse...two lost threads or two 76ers threads

I'm a millenial?

My sister works at Bonefish Grill in Newton Square. Apparently Roy Halladay ate there the other night.

Marion wrote:My sister works at Bonefish Grill in Newton Square. Apparently Roy Halladay ate there the other night.

i go here often. if you don't call ahead, you're pretty much fucked with a 90 min wait. bang bang shrimp or whatever the heck it is rocks.

knowing that halladay went there means i will be eating there daily now during homestands.

I often want to read Rick Reilly's articles just to taste the stupid hypocrisy but I would feel bad even giving him one page view of traffic