Selkie

Keeyah, I'll try to keep this response short and rant-free; for the record, like Pooka, I'm not against other people marrying, just myself.

The nutshell version: I won't marry because I refuse to give any other human being that kind of legal power over me. I don't believe marriage strengthens a happy relationship, and does a lot to prolong bad ones. The State makes it more difficult (sometimes impossible, if the couple lacks the financial resources) for two unhappy people to split up, go their own separate ways, and find happiness elsewhere, if there's a marriage certificate involved. I never want to give someone a legal claim on my whereabouts, thankyouverymuch. Don't even get me started on what the IRS and credit card companies do to an innocent spouse where their partner has committed financial wrongdoing. No, no, and no.

It's a shame that judicial activism with respect to wills creates a climate where many happily cohabitating people feel they need to get married solely to ensure legal protections, but I understand why some friends of mine married for just that reason. Ditto the way insurance works; there has to be a more sensible way to protect one's partner than being forced to marry, but right now I don't think there is one.

I've heard lately in American schools about children who aren't being allowed to fail. They're given smiley faces and check pluses for their work. They're not being graded for their work. Self-esteem and positive reinforcement are being deemed more important the the child's ability and learning.

This sounds distressing!

 

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The saddest part is that the children most distressed by it are the high achievers, as evidenced by a couple of gifted children I mentored. They were bored out of their skulls by watered down lesson plans, and irritated that kids doing mediocre work were being given the same grades and recognition they were. I'm not quite sure when the schools forgot the self-esteem generated by learning to do something difficult!

When was the last time you were in a SERIOUS relationship, as in met the parents, declarations of love, introduced to others as their girlfriend etc?

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Let's see: the current one has met my parents but I haven't met his although we have spoken on the phone (the whole "dating from 1600 miles away" thing precluded meeting them in realspace), we've often used the terms boyfriend/girlfried, but we don't do declarations of love and I'm not even sure we're still serious or just friends.

Before that, um, maybe 9 - 10 years ago, and did I ever dodge a bullet with that one. Couldn't be happier that I didn't accept his marriage proposal, and the less said beyond that, the better. For that matter, the same is true of the two previous guys who proposed. Note to guys: what a woman tells you early in the relationship that she's not shy of commitment but will never, ever marry, BELIEVE HER! Saves a lot of heartache for both parties.

Ha ha ha ha! Saw this subject line and knew immediately what sparked it. :lol:

If my on-line persona comes across as anything short of cranky old witch, I'm doing pretty well at hiding my true self. Fortunately, message boards have an edit function not present IRL. My online persona is more like what I used to be than what I am now, unfortunately.

I want Dave Allen at Large readily available!

Although neither ran enough episodes to support a DVD set individually, I'd love to see a combo pack of Action and Profit. Now that would be some nicely cynical entertainment!

Hell yes, I'm going this Friday. I've even made a date with a married man to accompany me.

And no, I'm not married, so it's not MY married man I'll be seeing it with.

Keeyah: I most definetely need help with a name for the dating scene.

 

Maddi: a poisonous flower might just be the thing. don't let them tell you I didn't warn them ;)

 

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Speaking as the queen of poisonous plants, might I suggest going with the traditional "Belladonna"? Leave 'em wondering whether you mean "beautiful woman" or deadly flower. 8-)

A "proper relationship" includes ... "I love you" during sex and meant it....

NO! Saying "I love you" after sex counts. Before or during just means you want some/more.

Ladies, shall I take the Dyson to all these males who keep intruding on our thread?

A good friend sent me his DVDs of the first season of Arrested Development. and I've been sadly neglecting this board in favor of side-spliting laughter at the Bluth family. Anyone who argues that this whackily dysfunctional family isn't realistic is invited to meet my real-life family, which is every bit as whacky without the funny. Everything about this series, from the music to the bleeps, is note perfect. When I've played the game of "what fictional character most resembles you", I've always said the Holly Hunter character from Broadcast News. Now, I think Michael Bluth.

The Shield is hands down my favorite cop show . The Wire and NYPD Blue are both great and more real But the Shield takes the cake with entertainment value .

slickevil, out of idle curiosity, what do you think of Homicide: Life on the Street? Haven't watched it for years, but remember it as a mind-blowing series at the time.

I don't think having "spirital experiences" and being a hardcore scientificalistic empiricist are mutually exclusive. I freely recognize that people have spiritual experiences. It's the interpretation of those experiences that's in question.

Do I believe my mother saw her (newly deceased, unknown to her) father standing outside her back door at about the time he died? Yes, absolutely. Do I believe what she was was the spirit or ghost of her father coming to bid her goodbye? No, I don't. He was quite ill at the time, and I think what she saw was a hallucination of her psyche seeking closure he'd never have given her in life. That interpretation doesn't deny that what she had was a powerful personal experience, and I'd never step on that. Do I take what she saw as objective evidence that there's life after death, or that ghosts are real? Not absent some compelling additional proof that has yet to present itself.

Heck, *I* have had experiences that, to other people, would be concrete evidence of otherworldy beings. I don't deny what I experienced, but I don't interpret them in the same way that other people might.

andy, sorry to hear about your hand. Best wishes for a speedy recovery, and good luck with the hospital expenses.

I've broken off the tip of my left olecrannon (the "funny bone" in the elbow), which is supposed to be one of the more painful breaks one can endure. In terms of pain from the break itself, it's certainly the most painful break I've had, but far, far from the worst pain related to a break. OK, I'll admit I passed out while they were taking the X-ray, but I gave them lots of warning. It's not MY fault that no one believed them when, for about 30 seconds, I warned them my body was getting ready to pass out. The ache during cold weather for the two years it required to fully heal was not something I'd wish on anyone.

I've also broken the fifth metatarsal of my foot, which occasion resulted in a funny story. I broke it in the doorway of the office building at which I worked, while I was stepping outside to chew out a co-worker. The snapping noise was so loud that people standing fifteen feet away with their backs turned looked to see what had caused it. I sat there in the doorway and proceeded to chew him out as scheduled, despite seeing stars as I was doing it. The effect was diminished when I needed his help to get off the ground, but still, I thought I did pretty well, and worked for several more hours. Sure, the leg was stiff, but I didn't think too much about it.

Went home for lunch, and just so happened to run into my mother. She pointed out that my leg from midcalf down had turned a lovely shade of black. How she convinced me to go to the ER I'll never know, but for the first parts of the exam no one treated me like I was worthy of coming in. Then they got the X-rays. Suddenly I had a nurse come up and ask me "Would you like any narcotics" in the best McDonald's "Would you like fries with that" voice I've ever heard outside an actual fast food restaurant. Suddenly nurse after nurse came by, trying to convince me to take painkillers. The turnaround in attitude was amusing.

Turns out the break itself, while inconvenient, wasn't the major problem - it was the fact I'd ripped almost every piece of soft tissue off the bone. That was the source of the ripping noise, and boy, did that cause AGONY, especially after weeks in a cast. I couldn't walk properly for close to a year.

I also have an inexplicable ankle fracture that shows up on X-rays, and am reasonably sure I've fractured my left wrist.

And all of this BEFORE the age of 30. I'm doomed.

I'm an agnostic.  I was an atheist in my late teens and early 20s, but realized that I really couldn't know or prove that God (or something like God) didn't exist.

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Atheist popping in with one small nitpick. Being an atheist means only that you don't believe in god(s). There's no burden to prove he/she/it/they don't exist. By all means call yourself an agnostic if you think the term more accurately reflects your beliefs, or are simply more comfortable with it, but don't avoid using "atheist" because you think it involves the probably impossible task of proving a negative.

To answer the OP's question: No heaven. No hell. All we leave behind when we die is our impact on the people and environment we touched while we were alive. Religion - any religion - is a tool of social control, sometimes wielded for good, but more often than not, for ill. I'm sure Christianity, Islam, and the more orthodox strains of Judaism made a lot of sense in the times they were spawned, but don't fit the modern world very well. Yes, there are still gems of wisdom in them, but so much doesn't apply that it would be easier to save those few nuggets and jettison the rest.

Remember, this is coming from someone whose reading of Genesis would have us worshipping snakes and learning religion from priestesses, so take with large grain of salt.

You're really good, Selkie!

Have you ever made sculptures of people?

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I've done a few, but they're nothing to write home about. I entered a Jenny Sparks sculpture in a Wildstorm board contest many moons ago, but find her thoroughly embarassing now. (Note to self: do not EVER listen to someone who suggested you modify normal human proportions to make a sculpt look more impressive. What worked on ancient Greek and Roman statues a story or more high does NOT work on small scale figures. Besides, their sculptors were better than you are). Started a nude male figure that would have been very nice had I finished him, but the clay's so thoroughly desiccated now that he'd wind up being a cyborg like my toad were I to try to finish him. It would probably be faster to make a new one than try to salvage the old one. Oh, and did a little female figure as part of a doll sculpting class I took, but the less said about THAT piece, the better. My idea of what constitutes sculpture, and the instructor's, differed in some key respects.

I really want to do a centaur some day, but my skill level's not up to that yet.

Thanks for the compliments, all of you.

Just finished a Victorian style Greyhound head:

http://www.bluefrogcreations.com/images/Vi...anGreyhound.JPG

On a roll! My mentor requested some bas reliefs to apply to goblets, plates, and such, so this weekend I created this raven's head:

http://www.bluefrogcreations.com/images/RavenHead.JPG

It would just be interesting to see if people who advocate an anti hero who spits in the face of God would actually adhere to God.

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Which god?

Generally gay men see a nice dick as a turn on.

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Speaking as a straight woman, I don't particularly want to see a guy's dick in ordinary circumstances. I'm not particularly bothered by seeing one, but I'm definitely not turned on by it either. And, in my experience, guys who try to draw attention to their genitals are usually insecure, socially crude, or otherwise undesirable in other ways.

Maddi, you're absolutely correct about the toad moving. He will be accompanied by a separate piece, an invertebrate of some non-edible species (probably a centipede). Originally he was intended to have his head down, like he was getting ready to pounce, but I rather like that the clay decided to have his head up, as though he's surveying.

Here are some Yorkie pictures:

http://www.bluefrogcreations.com/images/FinalYorkie2.JPG

http://www.bluefrogcreations.com/images/FinalYorkie.JPG

http://www.bluefrogcreations.com/images/FinalYorkie3.JPG

Need to get my head together to finish the goldfish's fins, which is all that's left. THAT piece is truly one my best, if not my very best, but sculpting all those little scales left me nearly blind. The thought of sculpting fin rays causes me to break out into a cold sweat.

I've been on a massive kick to finish all the incomplete sculptures and restoration projects clogging up my studio, and am having WAY too much fun doing so. This toad has been hanging around in various stages of readiness for something like three years. In fact, he's been around for so long that the original green clay went bad on me, and had to be covered with my regular silver. I rather like the resulting cyborg effect:

http://www.bluefrogcreations.com/images/CyborgToad4.JPG

http://www.bluefrogcreations.com/images/CyborgToad3.JPG

http://www.bluefrogcreations.com/images/CyborgToad2.JPG

http://www.bluefrogcreations.com/images/CyborgToad1.JPG

More later; the Yorkie's finished and a goldfish is nearly finished.

Thanks everybody! I haven't come down off of Cloud 9 since I received the news. Turns out one of the artists who helped me locate a place that could do slides on a rush basis also had one of her pieces accepted, and that just increases my happiness level (which I didn't think was possible!) I haven't heard from anyone else that I know one way or another. There were 438 entries, BTW, but I don't know what percentage were accepted.

I'll get some pix from other angles before I pack him up and send him on his way. I'm torn as to whether or not I want him to sell. Part of me wants to keep him, and part of me says "If anyone is willing to pay my (deliberately high) asking price, I can always make another one!"

I don't think I have much of a chance at the special awards, let alone Best in Show - which carries with it a $1250 purchase price and a berth in the permanent collection of the American Kennel Club - but I'm not being falsely modest when I say that being accept is all the honor I need. Mind you, if they wanted to throw me some money and give me the top prize for "Best Entry Depicting an Afghan Hound" I wouldn't complain a bit. Same artist has won that award for something like the last five years, so I'm not exactly holding my breath, but a girl can dream... In case you're wondering, the piece is eligible for "Best Entry Depicting an Afghan Hound," "Best Entry Depicting a Dog from the Hound Group," and "Best Sculpture."

While I'm taking pictures from other angles (thanks for the reminder), I'll try for some of my new dog sculpture while I'm at it. It's not of a breed I particularly care for, but on a technical level it's better than the Afghan.

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Mark, did you receive my PM about shipping the comics?

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Just received my copy and read it at lightning speed. A wonderful piece of work - I'm very pleased indeed.

Just realized I wasn't as clear as I should have been. I meant going to the Advanced Search function of eBay and searching the eBay stores. A surprising number of people don't know to look there, and there are often gobs of comics in particular to be had that way. Just a thought.

I always make a point of watching the five Academy Award nominees for Best Picture. Sometimes I find an unexpectedly good one; most of the time I wind up jeering throught the awards ceremony. This year is the first that I've seen so few of the nominees prior to the announcement. It's also the first year I'm finding myself struggling to motivate myself to watch them all. In other words, I'm freshly back from seeing Million Dollar Baby. Ummm ...

It's a well acted movie, but slow as a glacier, has plot holes I could drive a convoy of tanks through (one of which is an absolutely key plot point), and depressing as hell. I can't say it's a bad movie, but I certainly don't understand why the critics are so enamored of it, nor can I believe it stole a Best Picture slot away from worthier contenders. I certainly wouldn't watch it again.

If you do wind up roped into seeing this film, at least watch for the brief appearance of Morgan Freeman reading the comic Mystic.

Wolvy, have you tried searching the Stores for BINs? Admittedly, prices tend to be a litle higher there than the opening bids in the auctions, but at least there's no chance of a bidding war.

Why did she do this?

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Because she was "exerting her independence" :glare: :rolleyes: :icon_frown:

Just returned from the ER with my mother for the second time in just over a month. Don't know whether to be grateful she's OK or pissed that her behavior landed her there in the first place.