Other Interests

I have varied hobbies as well. I love to read, mostly fantasy adventure stuff (I need the escape sometimes), like Peter Brett (The Warded Man series), Brent Weeks (Night Angel trilogy) and Raymond Feist. I am also a huge music fan, though I don't currently play an instrument. I used to coach minor soccer, though my kids don't play anymore, and I am still involved in volunteering in soccer. Most of my life now seems to revolve around my boys and their "stuff". I love to fish, and Alberta has some of the best fly fishing in the country. However, I don't seem to find the time to do it. I also love camping. Nothing better than the great outdoors.

And animals. We have had all kinds of animals in my life, including hamsters, gerbils, ferrets, cats, dogs, snakes, turtles, fresh and salt water fish, and even an african pygmy hedgehog (these guys are so cool!). Up until three and a half years ago, the only thing I had not had was birds, and they have been the best so far.

RogerP wrote:

I have varied hobbies as well. I love to read, mostly fantasy adventure stuff (I need the escape sometimes), like Peter Brett (The Warded Man series), Brent Weeks (Night Angel trilogy) and Raymond Feist. I am also a huge music fan, though I don't currently play an instrument. I used to coach minor soccer, though my kids don't play anymore, and I am still involved in volunteering in soccer. Most of my life now seems to revolve around my boys and their "stuff". I love to fish, and Alberta has some of the best fly fishing in the country. However, I don't seem to find the time to do it. I also love camping. Nothing better than the great outdoors.

And animals. We have had all kinds of animals in my life, including hamsters, gerbils, ferrets, cats, dogs, snakes, turtles, fresh and salt water fish, and even an african pygmy hedgehog (these guys are so cool!). Up until three and a half years ago, the only thing I had not had was birds, and they have been the best so far.

I love fishing, too! It's like a reason to relax, be really quiet and do nothing. I'd love to try fly fishing. Your past inmates sound a lot like mine-reptiles: snakes, lizards, 50# tortoise, etc.; fresh & salt fish (I poached mine out of the Pacific Ocean. Shhh. . . don't tell. If any Fish & Game are reading this - I was 17. Statute of limitations has run.) and I had an african pygmy hedgehog too. Didn't people always want to poke yours out of curiosity and then they'd be startled that it was pokey? It was mostly my daughter's friends' PARENTS that wanted to poke it. The kids knew better.

RogerP wrote:

I have varied hobbies as well. I love to read, mostly fantasy adventure stuff (I need the escape sometimes), like Peter Brett (The Warded Man series), Brent Weeks (Night Angel trilogy) and Raymond Feist. I am also a huge music fan, though I don't currently play an instrument. I used to coach minor soccer, though my kids don't play anymore, and I am still involved in volunteering in soccer. Most of my life now seems to revolve around my boys and their "stuff". I love to fish, and Alberta has some of the best fly fishing in the country. However, I don't seem to find the time to do it. I also love camping. Nothing better than the great outdoors.

And animals. We have had all kinds of animals in my life, including hamsters, gerbils, ferrets, cats, dogs, snakes, turtles, fresh and salt water fish, and even an african pygmy hedgehog (these guys are so cool!). Up until three and a half years ago, the only thing I had not had was birds, and they have been the best so far.

Fantasy adventure, music fan but no instrument, fishing, camping, various animals, too busy for hobbies for the time being... and soccer is one of my favorite sports, although I don't play any more (and have forgotten just about everything about it, haha); I love watching though, and playing casual games where I mostly mess up every rule. Vulcan Mind Meld much? Well, maybe not, but pretty close.

Is the Night Angel trilogy good? I've been thinking about reading it forever now, but I always get sidetracked by something else. I'm currently in the middle of four different books (no exaggeration) so I probably won't be reading it anytime soon, but if you say it's good then maybe I'll up the count to five...

GlassOnion wrote:

I'm lovin' reading through these posts!!

Lyz, in case you're misunderstood, I don't do video editing. I do SOUND editing

I've always wanted to try yoga, but somewhere I read that yoga actually causes detrimental effects on people with psychological disorders.

Yoga is actually commonly recommended as a therapy for psychological disorders. The meditation helps a lot with mania and anxiety.

I found the Night Angel trilogy to be very entertaining. It's kind of like a good action movie or comedy, maybe not terribly deep, but a fun time. I really enjoyed and wished the series was longer.

Well, let's see here..

I love to read, but I'm really snobby about it. I prefer classic literature and American novelists. My favorite books are "The Grapes of Wrath", "The Great Gatsby", and "To Kill a Mockingbird". For more current novels, I really loved "All the Pretty Horses" and "A Beautiful Place to Die". My guilty reading pleasures are Stephen King and the Harry Potter books. I also hate anything with vampires (especially Twilight).

I love learning, and I'm particularly fond of the sciences and American history. For science, my preference is anything in the biological sciences, particularly human genetic diseases and the treatment of them. For history, I quite enjoy the history of American war time history, especially World War I & II and the period in between.

I like art, though I'm not particularly good at it. My favorites are Salvador Dali and M. C. Escher. And even though I'm not at all religious (I'm agnostic), I really love the art of Catholic churches and cathedrals.

Also, I love music. Everything from country (George Strait, Tim McGraw) to hip hop (Tech N9ne, South Park Mexican), Indie (Iron and Wine, Calexico), pop (Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Sia). Pretty much anything except opera.


And, my boyfriend and I are probably some of the biggest Oakland Raider fans in the world. I love the NFL and will be bored out of my mind if there's no season this year.

RogerP wrote:

I found the Night Angel trilogy to be very entertaining. It's kind of like a good action movie or comedy, maybe not terribly deep, but a fun time. I really enjoyed and wished the series was longer.

Sounds good to me. I checked and my library has all three books, so those will be next on my too-long list of things I will read.

LyzGrace wrote:

love shooting, I can understand that some people could find it boring, but I find it fun

I shot cans in the desert once, first with a 22 rifle and then with a 45-caliber handgun. The 22 was kind of fun, the handgun was just scary. But I'm one of those people who really doesn't much care for guns, period. I can see how target shooting would be fun, but it's not my cup of tea, plus so many people aren't as responsible as you are.

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And yeah, I guess you gotta have a certain level-headedness... I know lotsa people I would never trust with a gun, but I was raised around them. You have to treat them with reverence or an accident is bound to happen.

I remember when I drove across the country with my then-16-year-old brother. I was moving to Seattle for graduate school and I'd never been west of the Misssissippi, so I wanted to make an adventure out of it, camping across the country. David was my folks' idea, they didn't want me "alone". We still speak, which is some kind of miracle I expect! But I digress. My truck broke down on a Sunday in West Texas on a fairly remote stretch of road. There's a long story here, but we wound up staying in a small town for a few days and riding into the "big town" with the service station people to get parts for my "furrin car" (Datsun pickup truck). On the way, the woman we were with expressed great surprise that I was traveling without a gun and went on at some length about how worried that made her. Then in the same breath practically she told about her 5 year old niece who pulled a gun out of the bedside table and killed herself. It seems that happens just way too often, so I'm happy to hear that you are so careful!!! That's how it should be!

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Deborah, Smint is GORGEOUS. Dressage and eventing are actually two of the few disciplines I HAVEN'T ridden. I started hunt seat with an awful trainer (kick means go, pull means stop) and got to 3'6" rails until going to western pleasure and learned the science of performance horsemanship.

Thank you! Your sports-model is pretty nice looking too! Smint is one of those horses that looks kind of ordinary standing around, but when he's in motion he's a good-looking fellow. One of the best things I ever did as a horsewoman was buy him. He's a very good horse, even now that he's semi-gimpy. And smart. A little too smart. With the 9 lives of a cat and the need to use them all... he has had more vet adventures in the 9 years I've had him than ALL my other pets combined.

The nice thing about eventing, especially a few years ago when I was competing, was how nice the people were, and the extent to which actual horsemanship was required. I started out in hunters and jumpers, and I was lucky to have a good trainer who really taught her students to ride, but as I got older I began to realize how many people basically bought their ribbons. The trainer would school the horse to death, show it a few rounds over basically the same course, and then the rider would be turned loose in the hopes they could steer around without ruining the training too badly. The contrast in eventing, where no one else is allowed to ride the horse for the duration of the competition including all warmups, was refreshing. Plus people were more interested in everyone surviving the cross-country course than in "beating" someone else anyway.

Dressage for me is almost like yoga on horseback. Very meditative, very much about harmony and the appearance of ease even when things aren't easy. Unfortunately I am the type who could spend my whole riding career perfecting school figures and very few horses want to spend all their time being micro-managed!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Beautiful!!! My mom would love this... I'll have to poke around

Not to advertise, but I do custom work, I'll design to an idea and a price point. I can be slow to get something produced depending on my schedule, but I haven't had any actual complaints...


[/quote]Love love love love LOVE yoga. I've heard P90X is a killer, even for people who are in better shape than I am... they said they could barely make it through the warm-up!! I've been interested in trying, but I'm scared, haha. Honestly, if you do yoga frequently and get into the more ashtanga style you can be dripping in sweat by the time you're done, and I think it's so much better for your body and less risky than high-impact workouts, machines, and weights. [/quote]

I'm definitely a big yoga fan, but I want to do something a little more aggressive in conjunction with it. Although I agree, the vinyasa flow style and probably the Astanga primary series as well can have you moving enough to be genuinely cardiovascular.

I got the "Bring it!" book by the P90x guy (way cheaper than the DVDs) and I think I can manage the beginner workouts anyway. I will have to modify it -- I'm not likely to be doing the high-impact plyometrics moves at my current weight -- heck, I was afraid I couldn't use one of those door frame chin up bars without breaking the door ! (They can go up to 300lbs so I should be OK). So I'm thinking about doing the 6-week beginner sequence and see what I think after that. I also bought the "Special Ops Forces Workout" book hoping for the modern equivalent of the RCAF exercise book from the 60s -- that one's going in the mail to by 16-year-old nephew, there's no WAY that's for me! It really is for young men who want to be special ops types.

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This is so much fun learning about everybody!! Good idea, Roz!!!

I'll second (or third or ninety-ninth) that!

evil chicken wrote:

Singing (or screeching, depending on what notes I'm attempting to hit )

Heh, heh. I have a soft spot for musical theater, and I'm pretty sure I must have made my family insane because I would sing FOR HOURS on road trips, whole scores to entire plays. And my voice really isn't anything special.

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Wow... I'm kinda quirky and random.

Finest kind. I used to have a mug that read, "You are twisted, perverted and sick... I like that in a person!"

ScooterNScotty wrote:

I shot cans in the desert once, first with a 22 rifle and then with a 45-caliber handgun. The 22 was kind of fun, the handgun was just scary. But I'm one of those people who really doesn't much care for guns, period. I can see how target shooting would be fun, but it's not my cup of tea, plus so many people aren't as responsible as you are.

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And yeah, I guess you gotta have a certain level-headedness... I know lotsa people I would never trust with a gun, but I was raised around them. You have to treat them with reverence or an accident is bound to happen.

We used to go quading in the desert on BLM land. One weekend we were out there and there was a circle of RVs (think old west wagon train in a circle to keep out the Injuns), people quading all over. Obviously a lot of beer going on. We thought nothing of it until dusk (hours of beer later) and they started shooting guns. Talk about a Mad Max moment. We packed up and left. Didn't really care to accidentally get shot in the beerful-o'- shootin' - fun.

patdbunny wrote:

Down near Cabo San Lucas there's opportunity to volunteer in gathering the sea turtle eggs. I would love to do that!

I was just thinking I might like to get into something like that. I used to be big into therapeutic horseback riding as my "contributing to the world" thing -- I held an instructor's credential for years and volunteered teaching lessons a half day every Saturday. But after about 10 years I got really burned out, not so much with the kids but all the other "stuff" and I've kind of dropped out. Well, except every year they talk me into being "Volunteer Coordinator" aka "Stage Manager" for the fundraising horse show, which we just did this past weekend. It was their 15th annual show and my... 12th. But I either need to get back into that more, or I need to do something else.

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Leaving your horse at home, that's not too bad; getting rid of it because you outgrew it or lost interest. . . I could never understand the mentality behind horse keeping - "Upgrade" every few years to a better horse. I mean, horses are herd animals and grow strong bonds to their owners and other herd mates. Sounds so unnatural to rehome them every few years.

Actually, I think with a show horse, especially in an urban setting, the "herd of two" dynamic is far more dominant than an actual herd dynamic. And most horses handle change fairly well. They are herd animals, but herds are in a constant state of change typically, and most horses are programmed to "test the hierarchy" more or less continuously, they don't sort of sort it out and submit for all time the way dogs seem to. The kind of buddy-boding that leads to one horse freaking out whenever the other goes away is actually not that common and somewhat pathological.

I've been in that world of improving and "upgrading" and I've seen plenty of cases where everyone including the horse was happier with a change in owners. When the rider's desire to do certain things exceeds the horse's ability to physically do them, sometimes passing the horse to someone who can learn a lot working through the levels the horse is capable of leads to the horse having a great home and being very much loved where with the original rider there would either be resentment of being "stuck" or the horse might be pushed to perform at a level that was uncomfortable either physically or mentally. Oftentimes these horses stay at the same boarding facility with the same trainer and routine, and in any event the new home is generally carefully sought out because there is deep affection and appreciation for the teacher-horse. It's much like a human student moving on to a higher level trainer because it is time and new students coming in. I've actually never known a re-homed competitive horse in this kind of scenario to pine away for its former home or rider. It seems more often the case that the "outgrown" horse pines away if it's retired to pasture and left out of the action, even if it has the same horsey buddies

OTOH, on the money-uber-alles show circuits, I've seen people buy a winning horse, ride it so poorly that it is a neurotic mess and then trade it for a "new model" the following year. I. That's definitely NOT OK, that's just plain bad horsemanship.

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S&S - I second Lyz - gorgeous horse! Maybe a feed lease to keep your horse around? Although I do understand the objection to that. I really wouldn't want anyone I don't know to be goofing with my horses. Worrying my boys wouldn't be treated "right" and strong armed since they are kinda willful (hey, they're arabs, whadya expect).

I certainly wouldn't pass him on to a questionable home, or a random home in this set of circumstances. He's fairly young (16) but he's not fully sound (pastern arthritis aka ringbone) and I'd only give him to someone who will a) take care of him and understand his limitations and b) provide for him as he ages and becomes less sound. The current situation is that the trainer I've been working with with him for the last 4 years is leasing him for the summer and she has a student she wants to pair him up with for the next few years. I've seen her take care of her aging school horses and I trust her -- plus she loves Smint to death -- I honestly think she's more bonded to him and vice versa than I am right now. But she can't really afford to support him entirely on her own dime right now, so he'll become hers or her student's at the end of the summer if it works out. And I trust her judgement. If that doesn't work out, I have a friend who lives in Amish country in Pennsylvania who would happily take him. She and her daughter both ride, she's a good horsewoman and she has what So Cal does not -- acres of green pasture. It's a long trailer ride, but I know she'd give him a good home. So I'm actually very lucky to be blessed with an abundance of good options. I'm a little sad for myself, but I do think it is the right thing for me to not have that financial responsibility for at least a few years -- unless we move someplace where pasture-based backyard horsekeeping is considerably more feasible.

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You shouldn't have posted a pic of your paella. You're within driving distance. . . I'm glad this thread cheered you up a bit. Sometimes we get in a deep blue funk and don't even know it until we're right in the middle.

I can imagine worse fates than having to cook you and evil chicken a paella one of these days! My husband might want to share your cigar, though. LOL. Yes, I've been in a bit of a deep blue funk for a while. I'm not happy at work, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, money is suddenly important where it was never a big thing before, and I'm adjusting to being married after 46 years of being single, plus I'm realizing kids are definitely not going to happen. It all needs sorting out, and I'm basically the queen of well-adjusted so I'm sure I will sort it out, but I'm glad I have the birds at this point! They added a ton of work to my life, but they also keep my mind busy and they are just plain fun to have around.

coldtrance wrote:

Im also very active in the deaf community (im hard of hearing). I actually translate for the deaf when they visit my zoo.

Very cool!

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My favorite hobbies are off roading in my truck

We have an off-road capable vehicle, but we rarely get around to getting it off road! It does get to be a crew vehicle in Death Valley in the summer, but there isn't much time for excursions and that's not really the time of year to get too remote out there. Walking across it in August on the main road is bad enough!

RogerP wrote:

I have varied hobbies as well. I love to read, mostly fantasy adventure stuff (I need the escape sometimes)

I used to read a lot science fiction and fantasy and I always figured I'd write something in that genre. Then something happened and I started to get tired of what seemed very repetitive, so I started reading mysteries. Those haven't gotten too old yet, but I can imagine turning back. Problem I have with fantasy is that I always want to measure it against Tolkien, and very few writers can create something that genuinely feels that epic and immersive. I do remember finding Feist a lot of fun, though.

KayLayUh wrote:

Yoga is actually commonly recommended as a therapy for psychological disorders. The meditation helps a lot with mania and anxiety.

This makes more sense to me. Actually the word "yoga" refers to something broader than the physical practice we usually mean, and even within the physical practice, it's not all about poses. Regular breathing, relaxation, working with who you are and where you are on a given day are all important in yoga practice and also good things to bring to everyday life.

Kaela, I also used to be a real "reading snob" too, but somewhere along the way I decided it was OK to read "junk" as long as it was well-written, smart, funny "junk". If it makes me roll my eyes, I'm done. But when you get Rita Mae Brown writing light fiction, it's like a croissant or something -- great skill put behind something that is a guilty pleasure, divine without being particularly nutritious.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

evil chicken wrote:

Singing (or screeching, depending on what notes I'm attempting to hit )

Heh, heh. I have a soft spot for musical theater, and I'm pretty sure I must have made my family insane because I would sing FOR HOURS on road trips, whole scores to entire plays. And my voice really isn't anything special.

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Wow... I'm kinda quirky and random.

Finest kind. I used to have a mug that read, "You are twisted, perverted and sick... I like that in a person!"

Thanks! Good to know I'm not the only person who shouldn't sing but does, and who thinks nuttiness isn't necessarily a bad thing. Not-quite-"normal" is so much more amusing in life.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

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You shouldn't have posted a pic of your paella. You're within driving distance. . . I'm glad this thread cheered you up a bit. Sometimes we get in a deep blue funk and don't even know it until we're right in the middle.

I can imagine worse fates than having to cook you and evil chicken a paella one of these days! My husband might want to share your cigar, though. LOL. Yes, I've been in a bit of a deep blue funk for a while. I'm not happy at work, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, money is suddenly important where it was never a big thing before, and I'm adjusting to being married after 46 years of being single, plus I'm realizing kids are definitely not going to happen. It all needs sorting out, and I'm basically the queen of well-adjusted so I'm sure I will sort it out, but I'm glad I have the birds at this point! They added a ton of work to my life, but they also keep my mind busy and they are just plain fun to have around.

Mmm... Paella... I hope you get out of your "deep blue funk", S&S. Funks of any kind (except in music) aren't good at all.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Kaela, I also used to be a real "reading snob" too, but somewhere along the way I decided it was OK to read "junk" as long as it was well-written, smart, funny "junk". If it makes me roll my eyes, I'm done. But when you get Rita Mae Brown writing light fiction, it's like a croissant or something -- great skill put behind something that is a guilty pleasure, divine without being particularly nutritious.

I've actually gotten more snobby about it the older I've gotten. If I don't like the content of a book or the way it's written, I'll just stop reading it and refuse to touch it. Luckily, that doesn't happen too often with books I buy myself, but I stand by my aversion to the Twilight novels.

Other than that, I read pretty much everything. I worked for a company that digitized playbills from Chicago theatres dated from the 1870s to the early 1900s. One of the best things I saw was a playbill with John Wilkes Booth's brother as one of the starring actors. I also worked a lot with papers from the Middle East or Africa; it was very hard for me not to read them! Luckily, I read fast so I could fit in an article or two while I was working.



Also adding to my other interests, I love to sing to myself, too! I won't sing to anyone but myself or the birds, though. On top of that, I'm very good at remembering useless knowledge and trivia. I've actually taken the jeopardy test a couple of times.

KayLayUh wrote:

[...] but I stand by my aversion to the Twilight novels.

I'm with you there. I have only plowed through the first one. The concept had some merit, but the writing is really not technically very good, and the characters were as annoying as they were interesting. On the other hand, the Sookie Stackhouse novels are pretty amusing, especially the earlier ones. They lost a bit of the humorous edge once the TV show came out. I liked the first few Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books, but the last couple I read, I nearly did toss aside. They made me feel sullied and unusual. The author's other series struck me even worse, I did chuck the first book after the first few chapters. If I wanted to be exposed to one perverse intimate encounter after another without a plot, I could surf the internet... not my cup of tea.

I think there is an undeniable fascination to the vampire concept, but it is so easy to get it wrong. It's the price paid for immortality, the wisdom of living through all that history, the being able to charm but never really connect... it's very human, really. In the modern world, there seems to be an overwhelming tendency to take something that gets at all popular and try to do it over and over again until whatever gloss it had is completely worn off. "Interview with a Vampire" was pretty good, but the gazillion sequels seemed to me to take a little bit away each time, instead of adding. Invariably, they seem to pick whatever was weakest about the original and hammer on that repeatedly, too.

I read a couple of pages of the first Twilight novel, but I tend to stay away from the current best seller lists. My personal interest lies in American classics, particularly novelists like F. Scott Fitzgerald, J.D. Salinger, and John Steinbeck. I think the most recent novelist that I actually truly enjoy is Cormac McCarthy, but his writing style makes me want to poke my eyes out.

I've never understood the fascination with vampires, werewolves, or the like. I could never get through Dracula, and I've tried four or five times. I end up being bored to tears and giving up. My guilty pleasure series has to be the Harry Potter series. Anything else with that concept, I tend to automatically refuse.

That said, now I mainly read science magazines and journals or world newspapers. I have a few books I want to get, but I prefer to buy my books and keep them rather than go to a library or have a kindle or something.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

KayLayUh wrote:

[...] but I stand by my aversion to the Twilight novels.

I'm with you there. I have only plowed through the first one. The concept had some merit, but the writing is really not technically very good, and the characters were as annoying as they were interesting. On the other hand, the Sookie Stackhouse novels are pretty amusing, especially the earlier ones. They lost a bit of the humorous edge once the TV show came out. I liked the first few Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books, but the last couple I read, I nearly did toss aside. They made me feel sullied and unusual. The author's other series struck me even worse, I did chuck the first book after the first few chapters. If I wanted to be exposed to one perverse intimate encounter after another without a plot, I could surf the internet... not my cup of tea.
(...) In the modern world, there seems to be an overwhelming tendency to take something that gets at all popular and try to do it over and over again until whatever gloss it had is completely worn off. "Interview with a Vampire" was pretty good, but the gazillion sequels seemed to me to take a little bit away each time, instead of adding. Invariably, they seem to pick whatever was weakest about the original and hammer on that repeatedly, too.

I personally liked Twilight. The books, anyway; the movies were horrible beyond belief. The plot was pretty predictable and all, but I still liked it.

On the other hand, I absolutely agree with you that there's far too many vampire books/tv shows/movies/etc. and that our society tends to overdo ideas. Too much beating of the dead or undead horse. Maybe one of the reasons I stand by Twilight is that it was the first vampire-y novel set I read, and so the shiny newness got associated with it for me.

KayLayUh wrote:

I read a couple of pages of the first Twilight novel, but I tend to stay away from the current best seller lists. My personal interest lies in American classics, particularly novelists like F. Scott Fitzgerald, J.D. Salinger, and John Steinbeck. I think the most recent novelist that I actually truly enjoy is Cormac McCarthy, but his writing style makes me want to poke my eyes out.

Lol. I never knew it was on the bestseller list when I read it. I don't really ever pay attention to that stuff. So, I have no excuse like peer pressure, I guess I just have distasteful taste.

KayLayUh wrote:

I've never understood the fascination with vampires, werewolves, or the like. I could never get through Dracula, and I've tried four or five times. I end up being bored to tears and giving up. My guilty pleasure series has to be the Harry Potter series. Anything else with that concept, I tend to automatically refuse. (...)

ScooterNScotty wrote:

I think there is an undeniable fascination to the vampire concept, but it is so easy to get it wrong. It's the price paid for immortality, the wisdom of living through all that history, the being able to charm but never really connect... it's very human, really.

In the case of supernatural creatures, it's the inner conflict and humanness (as S&S said) that interests me. They're human with something that sets them apart, and they have to learn to cope with that. It's the emotional growth and betterment of the character, and the struggle with the issues that are raised by their supernatural quality(ies).

When it's not about the humanness in them, it's the difference psychologically that's intriguing, and trying to understand what that difference is. A myth about a werewolf, to me, would be similar to a story about a schizophrenic or autistic in that I want to try to understand how they're set apart. Temple Grandin, for example - she's an autistic woman who worked to overcome the problems autism caused for her. There was a biographical movie about her life, and she explains how her memory contains only pictures of specifics and how she can't think abstract thoughts. That's utterly intriguing for me, because my own mind works differently. So, to me, a werewolf with a strong instinct to act like a wolf rather than a human is also intriguing.

Vampire books - Just gotta treat it like reading a comic. Can't take it seriously and only for any entertainment value it may have. So long as they're writing in complete sentences . . .

S&S - Good to know that horses adjust well to rehoming. I suppose birds and most animals do to. The maladjusted behaviors are probably from mishandling more so than inability to adjust (which is what my experience has been with my few horses and second hand birds). I guess I just have more of a "pet" attitude as I don't do any sort of horse sport. Oddly, I'm ok with horse slaughter despite the "pet" view. Why let perfectly good meat on the hoof go to waste if someone somewhere will eat it? And it has nothing to do w/ me being asian. Pragmatic thinking.

patdbunny wrote:

Vampire books - Just gotta treat it like reading a comic. Can't take it seriously and only for any entertainment value it may have. So long as they're writing in complete sentences . . .(...)

Yeah, that. All my psychological mumbo-jumbo regards supernatural creatures in general in a "What if?" sorta mentality, not necessarily specific books/stories. Stories are just. . . there.

I can't believe I missed this whole mini-discussion!

Concerning Twilight and similar type books, I can't hate them. It gets kids to read. My sister, she had read only a handful of books that weren't required by school before Twilight. After all the hype, she decided to read it. She actually enjoyed it and went on to read the entire series. After that, she went on to buy the books from the Vampire Diaries series, and she even asked to read my hunger games books.

People just aren't reading anymore, especially youth. So for comic books, lame teen-age fiction, and magazines, I support them.

Yeah, if it works in getting kids to read, there is something to be said for it. Although Harry Potter is a much better written baited hook IMO. I'm not SO down on Twilight, but the argument does make me think about a conversation I had a couple weekends ago at an Astronomy Visualization workshop. The argument was that it was OK to "cook" the data as much as you needed to as long as it got someone to stop and look at the magazine cover and maybe actually read the article. I'm totally OK with artists concepts when they are labeled as such, but I am NOT OK with taking an image and manipulating it in a way that fictionalizes it. It's a little hard to define exactly where that boundary is, but adding painted details and not making it clear that's what they are is clearly over the boundary as is manually and non-algorithmically removing features from the data that might "distract the eye" from the "story". I'd like to think that one can draw people in to something without turning it into pablum, be it reading or science. But I'm even a curmudgeon in my own field anymore.

Roz, we'll get ourselves ostracized this way, but I actually agree with you. I think outlawing slaughter in the US made things worse for unwanted horses. Now they either get left to slowly starve, or they get shipped across a border. I was all for regulating transport conditions and slaughter plant conditions to make it more humane. Ideally, every horse would have a home, but especially in a down economy -- they don't. It costs money to have a horse euthanized and the body dealt with. A while back they had some free euthanasia clinics in the bay area and the response was staggering. Evilchicken mentioned Temple Grandin -- one of her early successes was being able to design slaughter plants for cattle that dramatically reduced their stress levels. I'm way more concerned with humane treatment than I am with preserving life as such. I don't mind that my dinner died to get on plate, but I'd like to think it had a nice life prior to.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Roz, we'll get ourselves ostracized this way, but I actually agree with you. I think outlawing slaughter in the US made things worse for unwanted horses. Now they either get left to slowly starve, or they get shipped across a border. I was all for regulating transport conditions and slaughter plant conditions to make it more humane. Ideally, every horse would have a home, but especially in a down economy -- they don't. It costs money to have a horse euthanized and the body dealt with. A while back they had some free euthanasia clinics in the bay area and the response was staggering. Evilchicken mentioned Temple Grandin -- one of her early successes was being able to design slaughter plants for cattle that dramatically reduced their stress levels. I'm way more concerned with humane treatment than I am with preserving life as such. I don't mind that my dinner died to get on plate, but I'd like to think it had a nice life prior to.

Ha! Ha! I guess that's why we're here in Paradise! We can post our controversial views without worry we'll get jumped all over.

Funny story - Growing up with my parents owning a Chinese restaurant, we employed a lot of immigrants. Primarily asian immigrants. This one guy from Malaysia saw my conure and he commented something to the effect that the colorful ones were delicious. Another lady, I don't remember where she was from, she was petting my dog (black shep X), asking me how old the dog was. Then I noticed she was pinching the dogs rear haunch kinda like how you'd squeeze produce to see if it was ripe. . . Apparently black dogs are delicious, too.

I've been reading everyone's comments and they keep reminding me of things I'd like to add. Not only that, but every time I read another comment by someone, I keep thinking, "I really should add a little detail about my interests... I really should add a little detail..." but I've yet to add any detail. So I guess I'll add some detail now.

I said I enjoyed photography. In point of fact, I love it. If I had my life to live all over again, I would pursue the photographic arts somehow. I'm really not very good at photography right now. I could be better, I'd LIKE to be better, but there's a lot of science in good photography that I just don't know. One of my greatest personal assets is also one of my biggest pitfalls. When I become involved in something, I'm not satisfied unless I have a complete and thorough understanding of the subject. When I do things, I feel compelled to go "all out" all the time, every time. If there's something I don't know, I try to find the answer, and if there's something I don't understand, I try to figure it out. If I can't figure out what I want to know, I have a tendency to get frustrated and "chuck it all" for a while. Unfortunately, there are things I just can't figure out on my own. (For example, adjusting shutter speed and ISO for different lighting situations to get different effects.)

In the past, corrections could be made (to some extent) in the photo lab. My great-grandmother was a photo-pioneer. She took hundreds of photos with her box camera (which I now have ) and developed them herself in her basement darkroom. I've got boxes of her pictures I've yet to scan for the family website. I learned basic darkroom technique in high school and really liked it, but digital imaging is the "wave of the future" it seems. I'm fortunate that in general, if it has to do with computers, it just seems to make sense to me and I'm able to pick it up pretty easily. That will come back up in a minute, but for now it applies to the digital photo editing. For the most part it's easy for me, and to make it better, I really love doing it.

Shooting is another love/passion of mine. I'll write a bit more about it later in "My Life" section.

So, that covers all of my shooting- photos and guns.

Computer stuff? Shoot. I just like it. I've been learning HTML lately. Before that, I was working on all of the Microsoft Office products - learning the lesser known products and lesser known features of the major ones. (Some of the things that Outlook is able to do is pretty cool.) The one thing that I've never bothered to learn (that I'm making myself learn now) is Excel. I hate it for some reason. It's capability is astounding, but for whatever reason, I have a mental block against learning it. I've finally gotten to the point where I'm making Excel my default program for just about everything. I try it first, and if I can't find a way to make it work, then I'll use what I want to. It's the only way I'll figure out what it can do and how to make it dance. I'm terrible.

Disaster Planning and Personal Safety...I tried to start a business teaching people about this at one point. It's a passion I have. I tend to soapbox about it (kind of like everything else?) so I wont get started. If you're interested, let me know what your questions are. Rest assured, I've got answers.

Baking is something that takes me away from the rest of the world for a while. Nothing relieves stress and/or frustration like 15 minutes of kneading bread dough, and nothing tastes better than bread after you spent time kneading it, waiting on it to rise, then smelling it baking in your own oven.

Roz, you asked about cake recipes? LOL! If you had ANY idea how bad I am at cakes!?! Last year, I decided to make my own birthday cake... from scratch. I made one and it baked up to an ultra fluffy 1/2" thick (I took pictures!)! So it was still early in the day, I decided to try making a second one - surely I wouldn't mess up TWO birthday cakes, right? WRONG! The second one was just as bad! LMAO! I finally gave up and bought Betty Crocker's Box-o-cake. It was magnificent!

Lots of other people have mentioned music. I enjoy music, but like Kaela and her books, I tend to be a music snob. At some point in my life, I've listened to just about everything music has to offer except punk-rock and screaming hair-metal (or whatever it's called). Rap, hip-hop, country, jazz, children's (I love Disney music!), and even new age, I still listen to it all on occasion... but for the most part I have classical music on. I played the clarinet for seven years while I was in school. I also played the piano, and taught myself to play the guitar and the harmonica (super fun, you should try it!). I hear and sing with perfect pitch, but I have crap for a voice. It's a shame, I coudda been a starrrrr! (not!!!) Singing isn't my thing. I enjoy singing with the radio turned up loud enough that I can't hear myself - or anyone else. I'm easily irritated when people/instruments/orchestras/bands/whatevers are even the slightest bit off key, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me - but after having kids (and my husband) I've grown to like that nail/chalkboard sound (I shouldn't admit that should I?).

And finally, to all you horse people out there, I was once one of you. I've loved horses since I was a little-bitty wee one. Loooonnnng story short, I got a job and started paying for my own riding lessons when I was 16 and able to drive myself to get to there. I started hunter-jumper/dressage and ultimately transitioned to western pleasure. My senior year in HS, I bought a young gelding who was only saddle trained. I worked with him and a trainer until he and I were running barrels. We were really bad and he almost broke my nose, but we did it. When I went away to college I took him with me. I did a lot of things wrong in college, but selling Cody was one of the few things I did right. I wasn't giving him the attention he needed. I was in a far different place than I needed to be - for a bunch of reasons.

However, horsemanship is in your genes. I know I couldn't ride as well today as I did twenty years ago, but I know I could ride as well today as someone who doesn't "know" horses and has been riding every couple of months. Sometimes you just know. I don't "know" dogs the way I "know" horses, and I've got three of them. Anyway, your stories bring back some bittersweet memories for me ... I still love the smell of a barn.


But like I said earlier, I've found that my birds give me the most joy. I just love them, and they love me. It's really no more complicated than that.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Roz, we'll get ourselves ostracized this way, but I actually agree with you. I think outlawing slaughter in the US made things worse for unwanted horses. Now they either get left to slowly starve, or they get shipped across a border. I was all for regulating transport conditions and slaughter plant conditions to make it more humane. Ideally, every horse would have a home, but especially in a down economy -- they don't. It costs money to have a horse euthanized and the body dealt with. A while back they had some free euthanasia clinics in the bay area and the response was staggering. Evilchicken mentioned Temple Grandin -- one of her early successes was being able to design slaughter plants for cattle that dramatically reduced their stress levels. I'm way more concerned with humane treatment than I am with preserving life as such. I don't mind that my dinner died to get on plate, but I'd like to think it had a nice life prior to.

I need a smiley that says, "What SHE said!" In the mean time, this will have to do...

patdbunny wrote:

Ha! Ha! I guess that's why we're here in Paradise! We can post our controversial views without worry we'll get jumped all over.

Funny story - Growing up with my parents owning a Chinese restaurant, we employed a lot of immigrants. Primarily asian immigrants. This one guy from Malaysia saw my conure and he commented something to the effect that the colorful ones were delicious. Another lady, I don't remember where she was from, she was petting my dog (black shep X), asking me how old the dog was. Then I noticed she was pinching the dogs rear haunch kinda like how you'd squeeze produce to see if it was ripe. . . Apparently black dogs are delicious, too.

(I have a black shep X too, and can just imagine
some lady pinching her to see if she were ripe! )

Vicki5280 wrote:

I said I enjoyed photography. In point of fact, I love it. If I had my life to live all over again, I would pursue the photographic arts somehow.

Why not do so now? It would be a very part-time thing, perhaps, but you don't know where it might lead unless you give it a go! No reason to look back in time at it, look at where you could go from here!