In these discussions I generally agree with some people and generally disagree with some people. However, I always want to learn and know more. Sometimes I learn from people I disagree with even if I find some of their attitudes objectionable. Of all those I contend with and disagree with I learn most from hasbeen. He (I assume hasbeen is a man.) is knowledgeable about farming, motors and other areas and among his rants I get useful bits of knowledge and a changing point of view. From which person who you disagree with do you learn most?

Hi David, a bit of a loaded question, an opportunity for some to bucket on those they disagree/dislike, maybe even hate. I actually have a bit of fondness for those I give pet nicks to, Issy (Is Mise), Indy (Individual) Hassy (Hasbeen), and Jose'(Josephus) runner is all okay. Others including mhaze, bazz, shadowminster can give a very good argument, as can some other forum regulars. Truly I don't have animosity for anyone who posts on OLO. I miss Butcher (rehctub), OUG and Belly and some nicks I can't recall at this time, I even miss Il Duce (ALTRAV), me thinks he's in Forum purgatory for his 32nd offence, or some such place.

On the positive side there are many good folk posting.

Dear David,

To me the person that I learn so much from has to
be Canem Malum. I find his views thoroughly abhorrent
at times - yet absolutely brilliant at other times.

OLO is the last place I would looking to learn anything. It's OK as a pastime, but it's only about opinions - many of them off the planet - and all from anonymous characters who can't prove that they really know anything about anything.

Well, to me - it often encourages me to research
subjects that I would not have been interested
in. I'm constantly learning about things by doing
that. It broadens my knowledge and even
sometimes my outlook - changing my views at times.

What ever happened to Pericles ? I always learnt something from his/her posts, usually expressed with rye humour as well.

Joe

Dear Joe,

I remember Pericles - great poster.
There were so many who are
no longer with us - from Poirot to Belly to Suse.
But lets not down play who we currently have on
this forum. And that's what I've learned on
my contacts with the diverse people here.
My spirit is mostly uplifted by those encounters.
Yes, we've all encountered some grouches and
grumps, but mostly we've met some amazing souls -
with stories to share - such as yourself, Paul,
O Sung Wu, Hasbeen, Steele, David F., Saltpetre,
and many others. I won't name everyone in case
I leave somebody out and hurt someone's feelings.

I basically do enjoy enter-acting on this forum.
We don't always agree and of course there's the
usually misunderstandings and spats - but on the
whole - it is a great place to learn what others
think, and their stories. We all have stories to share.
And that's what makes it interesting.

I started thinking about this thread as an exploration of how we learn and what we learn and most importantly 'what' we retain.

For myself, some facts and experiences have continued to remain important to me, so, of these I have some retention - and if I dig, from a recalled fact as a 'start point', then more may come to mind.

I am poor with names - and with memory generally - but I recall the name of my French teacher in high school.
My memory seems very selective - maths, physics, smattering of some languages, some literature, work/skill and diversion related, and notable news and current affairs.

Maths/physics: S = ut + 1/2at-squared; g = 32fps-squared; F=ma; or 1 chain = 22 yards, 1 acre = 10 square chains, 640acres = 1 square mile, 1 hectare = 2.47 acres, or 10,000 sq metres;
inch, foot, yard, chain, furlong, mile; mm, km; ml, lt; gm, kg; oz, lb;
60 mph = 88 fps; C = 186,000 mps; 16oz = 1lb, 14lb = 1 stone; 20 oz = 1 pint;
20 grains/scruple, 60 grains/dram, 8 drams/oz, 14oz/lb, (troy weight, not avoirdupois); or 7000grains/lb Imperial;
1 atmosphere - 14.7 lb/inch-squared (or 33 feet of water - from scuba diving); sine = opposite/hypotenuse; pie = 3.142, circumference = 2x pie x radius, circle area = pie x r-squared.
And so on - mostly imperial.

I retain these and more, and can use many equations, but so many other non-functional/non-equation facts and events and experiences have long been lost - or require a lot of digging.

My conclusion is that I retain what seems most important to me - facts I continue to use in my life, and memories of most enjoyed or most challenging parts of my life.

My next conclusion is that my opinions - what I think about things - must depend heavily on what memories, conclusions and assumptions I have attained or gleaned through personal experience and evaluation.
(TBC):

Continued:

Therefore I can only be as accurate or biased or right/wrong as accords with my residual recollections/knowledge and embedded assumptions.
I am fallible.

Are we all not similarly limited - and similarly fallible?
(Perhaps particularly when exposed to volumes of material - variously accurate/erroneous/skewed - and since all our life journeys and experiences will have been quite different?)

Certainly my horizons have been both expanded and challenged through my participation on this Forum, and for that I am thankful - though some contributions occasionally appear to stretch the truth or may be spurious or designed only to invoke a reaction, but then it takes all kinds, and we all need some humour in our lives.

As an aside, have you noticed how often our thread discussions eventually become skewed to some tangential or unrelated subject/issue/matter of greater appeal to at least to some of the contributors?

More importantly, how can we detect who is fibbing? (Or, purposely misleading us?)
Trump?

Sometimes I think maybe I should just get a life.

Something else has just occurred to me.

I remember when I was first diagnosed with cancer
how devastated I felt. I needed to talk to someone
about it and I chose the forum. I felt safe here.
And the advice and support that I received helped
a great deal - also because it was anonymous.

However I remember how hurt I felt when one particular
poster blamed me for seeking sympathy ( I wasn't - I
just needed to talk to someone) and blamed me for being
so "personal". The same person criticized me when I
had to deal with my mum's dementia and later alzheimers.

Still that was just one poster - who I later realized
didn't really matter. Even from those experiences - there
were lessons to be learned.

cont'd ...

None of us are perfect. We all have our flaws.
However, through inter-action, we can learn
a great deal. As I stated earlier - we all
have stories to tell and share - no person is
an island - at least they have a choice - not to be.
Easier for some than others I guess.

Today - I don't open up so easily. And I tend to
hold back more. Perhaps age has something to do
with it as well. Trust does not come as easily as
it once did.

When we are kind to one-another life is so much better.

When we can shrug-off strenuous objections and disagreements we recover peace and objectivity so much faster - and feel better about ourselves.

When we are positive, we achieve more and are happier.

When we can laugh at ourselves we hit the jackpot.

Grudges, smudges, best quickly dismissed.

Laugh and the world laughs with you.

Women can be perplexing, adorable, admirable and unfathomable, and a great comfort.

Men? Yikes.

Cats are nice, but dogs are more fun.

Dear Foxy,

I've learnt so much from you, about how to be considerate and compassionate. The world is a better place with you in it.

Love,

Joe

Dear Saltpetre,

I'm a dog person myself.

Although my husband's parents did have a cat -
"Mikas" with whom I bonded greatly.
I was the only one on whose lap he would
sit and he followed me around like a puppy.

Dear Joe,

I've also learned so much from you dear man.
You have a big and kind heart.

david f,

Your hero Hasbeen is Phil West.

Who said you can't learn anything from Mr Opinion?

Yes David F, I know the feeling. I can remember blow by blow a Bathurst motor race from the mid 60s. I can remember in minute detail the first time I landed on an aircraft carrier, & the first time I navigated a yacht into a previously never visited port in a gale on a dark night. But I so often can't remember why I just walked into the kitchen.

My life has been a series of compartments, all to do with learning. I find learning a new skill, or topic fascinating, I can't get enough of it. Then after time I reach my level of ability if physical, or understanding if mental, & find something else attracts me with more urgency. While learning something new it is like opening a door to a new world, but then another door appears with a tantalising opportunity to learn something you previously knew little about. How do you resist?

Dear Hasbeen,

I no longer drive, and my abilities are limited by age. I can still stroke wife, read books, unscrew jars and flip fried eggs sometimes without breaking the yolks.

I learn from my grandkids, and I hope they learn a little from me.

A trueism; "Einstein plus an idiot, are smarter than Einstein on his own."

Funny you should say that Hassy, my first wife's grandmother @ 102 could describe in detail things and events in her life from the 1920's and 30's, yet couldn't tell you what she had for lunch an hour earlier, or who had visited her that morning. She once told me how as a child of 10 in 1920, she would go to the next farm to collect milk for her mother in a pail. I asked Nanna; "What was the pail like you got the milk in?" She described it in detail its colour, trim, shape, handle, volume etc that was 90 years after the event. To me that was amazing she could do that, yet not being able to recall events of that day.

david f,

What do you mean when you say "I can still stroke wife".

Are you telling us you strike your wife or that she is a giant cat?

Dear Paul,

Mum also could remember songs from the past.
She knew all the words. She also recognized
me and knew who I was. Yet she thought that
my husband was my driver. "A nice man" as
she described him. She would ask me to bring
her favourite foods at times - like beef
blintzes, herring fillets, potato pancakes,
or potato pudding (Kugel), and some fish dishes.
Mum was in a nursing home and the food was quite
bland. However, she still remembered her favourite
food even the recipes. It was a bit problematic
though - she had trouble swallowing - but I'd still
make them for her - in small dosees.

It made her happy.

Hi Foxy,

Don't get me started on aged care facilities in Australia. My wife when she first arrived in Oz took a supervisory position in an Aged Care Facility in Sydney, she had over 20 years experience back in NZ in such institutions, for both the aged and mentally impaired. On a return trip to NZ, we visited on of Te's old "homes", she was mobbed by the folks there. They insisted Te gets the guitar, and all 42 of them into the big play room for sing song, two hours later it was lunch time. Te could not believe some of the practices that the Sydney facility engaged in. Just a small example, checking on the meal prep in the first few days, she found an employee in the kitchen, using a 'Mulie' (puree) leftovers in a large pot on the stove top for the evening meal. In this concoction were the cleanouts of the fridge, leftover mince, fried eggs, mashed potato, vegs, etc depending on the dominant vegetable that determined the colour of the "stew", orange from pumpkin it seems. She soon learnt that profit and little else was the driving force of that institution. Eight acute/palliative care rooms, for those on their last legs, subsidised by the taxpayer, something like $1200/day. Those beds were never empty, the doctors/owners made sure of that, as one patient passed on, another was put in their place. BTW these operators had 5 such institutions around the burbs. The wife moved on the the Children's Hospital, there it was caulk and chees, when comparing the two.

You have told me your Mum's facility was much better than that, and we must be thankful that it was so. Unfortunately many old people are not so lucky.

Paul1405,

Are you aware that most of the new large aged care facilities being built or still on the drawing board are to be built, owned and operated by the Chinese?

And one day in the future they could be converted to re-education centres after China has taken total control of Australia.

Dear Paul,

We visited mum daily. So we kept watch over her
and the facility. We got involved with other family
members there, and we all watched out for each
other. We also made friends with the staff - including
management. I think that made a big difference.

I also worked there part-time as a volunteer and got involved
with the residents as well.