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Post by ronmiller on Mar 9, 2020 12:03:51 GMT
Ron you have a beautiful wife and daughter. Thanks! I am pretty lucky in that regard! It's also great having such handy models, too!
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Post by ronmiller on Mar 9, 2020 17:13:28 GMT
Boy, did this thread get off topic!
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Mar 9, 2020 18:57:13 GMT
"I don't think I would have got into college if i hadn't gone to the Grammar School so I am grateful for that but I would have liked a few practical courses"
I went to Secondary School, oddly because I wanted to, it had better results than the local Grammar. I still went to college, but perhaps just on merit. I did drop out eventually though, it was the 'cool' thing to do in those days.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2020 23:08:09 GMT
It sounds unreal, like out of the Mad Men tv series, or, another century altogether, and to think, it was only a few decades ago. And yes, extremely funny; a homemaking test? Maggie,
Aye, a homemaking test. Far from the hardest test I ever took or experienced. And to be true, a very different time in part due to the places. A funny test is an XY getting a definite + reading on a pregnancy test.
Not to cause offense or be offensive, but if your new avatar is a recent foto, gauged by appearance you don't look to be any older than my spouse. Good genetics have you. And I officially feel decrepit.
Thanks My avatar was taken March 7, 2020. You don't look or sound decrepit.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2020 23:08:53 GMT
Boy, did this thread get off topic! Perfectly so!
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 9, 2020 23:39:12 GMT
Boy, did this thread get off topic! Perfectly so! Let a gaggle of writers start talking and there goes the topic.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 9, 2020 23:52:39 GMT
Maggie,
Aye, a homemaking test. Far from the hardest test I ever took or experienced. And to be true, a very different time in part due to the places. A funny test is an XY getting a definite + reading on a pregnancy test.
Not to cause offense or be offensive, but if your new avatar is a recent foto, gauged by appearance you don't look to be any older than my spouse. Good genetics have you. And I officially feel decrepit.
Thanks My avatar was taken March 7, 2020. You don't look or sound decrepit. I thought it was recent, and yes, you appear younger than you likely are.
Feeling decrepit is somewhat different than looking or sounding that way.
Seasonal changes and the weather swings as goes with them can get painful. A lot of days I wake up feeling every half-trained horse I ever dealt with, every mile of ground I ever pounded, every injury, and so on.
I'm doing better than a lot of the people I used to know as I'm still above the daisies and they're not. That said, some days it would be nice to not hurt while the early morning painful creakiness wears off and subsides into a dull ache in too many areas.
Now back to my story: "The Marmoset and I". Just kidding on the story.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 10, 2020 0:11:31 GMT
Ron, you were trebly blessed by all the gods and goddesses from the Time of Legend.
Judith isn't just lovely and an artist, she is what I would term a Renaissance Master of multiple talents.
I, rather we have several Dia de los Muertos skulls and candles in a totally inadequate cooking area, but we make do until we can craft better.
Time for me to suspend the computer, nasty headache from the live-oaks trying to impregnate my sinuses.
Thanks for the nice words! Judith has said that she probably has the only kitchen in the county that is decorated in death. She became fascinated with both Dia de los Muertos and Mexican cooking while we were in Mexico working on Dune. For years she held an annual Day of the Dead dinner at our home. Even her new kitchen is decorated throughout with Mexican tiles. Here is a picture of her laying tiles on the peninsula... The culture is pretty interesting.
I remember driving someone down to see their family and going to a small rancho -- a kid there was asking me if I was sick because my hair was white but I wasn't old. The boy had never seen a blond before.
While I was there I saw an elderly woman and I could tell she didn't have long due to the way she was breathing. When one of her sons [about 40-y-o] started talking about the medications he and his brothers planned to buy, I told him it would be better for them to save the money and comfort her while spending as much time with her as possible while they could. When he asked why, I told him I was sorry but she didn't have long.
A few days later some of the people from that rancho [including the son I'd spoken with] stopped in the town closest to where they lived as the person I'd driven down and I were getting ready to head back North. They told me the old lady had died and they made it very clear they would be very honored if 'El Capitan del Barque' as they referred to me returned.
Maybe some of them believed I was the captain of the ship that ferries the dead across to the other side, maybe not. I like to think they appreciated the heads up and the little bit of extra time they had with her. The one-way trip from that rancho to the nearest town with a farmacia took over an hour and the meds were costly.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2020 0:05:21 GMT
Thanks My avatar was taken March 7, 2020. You don't look or sound decrepit. I thought it was recent, and yes, you appear younger than you likely are.
Feeling decrepit is somewhat different than looking or sounding that way.
Seasonal changes and the weather swings as goes with them can get painful. A lot of days I wake up feeling every half-trained horse I ever dealt with, every mile of ground I ever pounded, every injury, and so on.
I'm doing better than a lot of the people I used to know as I'm still above the daisies and they're not. That said, some days it would be nice to not hurt while the early morning painful creakiness wears off and subsides into a dull ache in too many areas.
Now back to my story: "The Marmoset and I". Just kidding on the story.
Imagine you lived in a cold country. You would crack each dawn. Anyway, it's getting warm here. It was still light out at seven.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2020 0:07:03 GMT
Thanks for the nice words! Judith has said that she probably has the only kitchen in the county that is decorated in death. She became fascinated with both Dia de los Muertos and Mexican cooking while we were in Mexico working on Dune. For years she held an annual Day of the Dead dinner at our home. Even her new kitchen is decorated throughout with Mexican tiles. Here is a picture of her laying tiles on the peninsula... The culture is pretty interesting.
I remember driving someone down to see their family and going to a small rancho -- a kid there was asking me if I was sick because my hair was white but I wasn't old. The boy had never seen a blond before.
While I was there I saw an elderly woman and I could tell she didn't have long due to the way she was breathing. When one of her sons [about 40-y-o] started talking about the medications he and his brothers planned to buy, I told him it would be better for them to save the money and comfort her while spending as much time with her as possible while they could. When he asked why, I told him I was sorry but she didn't have long.
A few days later some of the people from that rancho [including the son I'd spoken with] stopped in the town closest to where they lived as the person I'd driven down and I were getting ready to head back North. They told me the old lady had died and they made it very clear they would be very honored if 'El Capitan del Barque' as they referred to me returned.
Maybe some of them believed I was the captain of the ship that ferries the dead across to the other side, maybe not. I like to think they appreciated the heads up and the little bit of extra time they had with her. The one-way trip from that rancho to the nearest town with a farmacia took over an hour and the meds were costly.
Cameron, it sounds like you live in a movie. Or a book.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2020 0:08:31 GMT
"I don't think I would have got into college if i hadn't gone to the Grammar School so I am grateful for that but I would have liked a few practical courses" I went to Secondary School, oddly because I wanted to, it had better results than the local Grammar. I still went to college, but perhaps just on merit. I did drop out eventually though, it was the 'cool' thing to do in those days. Kevin, you dropped out? How interesting. You seem studious.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 11, 2020 12:05:23 GMT
The culture is pretty interesting.
I remember driving someone down to see their family and going to a small rancho -- a kid there was asking me if I was sick because my hair was white but I wasn't old. The boy had never seen a blond before.
While I was there I saw an elderly woman and I could tell she didn't have long due to the way she was breathing. When one of her sons [about 40-y-o] started talking about the medications he and his brothers planned to buy, I told him it would be better for them to save the money and comfort her while spending as much time with her as possible while they could. When he asked why, I told him I was sorry but she didn't have long.
A few days later some of the people from that rancho [including the son I'd spoken with] stopped in the town closest to where they lived as the person I'd driven down and I were getting ready to head back North. They told me the old lady had died and they made it very clear they would be very honored if 'El Capitan del Barque' as they referred to me returned.
Maybe some of them believed I was the captain of the ship that ferries the dead across to the other side, maybe not. I like to think they appreciated the heads up and the little bit of extra time they had with her. The one-way trip from that rancho to the nearest town with a farmacia took over an hour and the meds were costly.
Cameron, it sounds like you live in a movie. Or a book. Maggie,
I may have a different set of data points in memory, but it's due to having lived in a very different context than many of those in industrialized nations with what are considered mature economies [and I'm starting to get as old as dirt]. The paradigm I have is due in part to that context and its differing experiences, a mix of nature and nurture if you will.
When you experience even for a brief period what people whose standard of living isn't much higher than subsistence go through [often for their entire lives], it quickly becomes clear just how full of themselves [and crap] some people are, i.e.: many of the following; politicians; economists; and the elite. As some 'rogue' economists have finally figured out and starting talking about, rising GDP as gauge of prosperity measures everything except what makes living worthwhile because those things are considered 'externalities' in mainstream economic study. When the only place to relieve your bowel is a small pit situated in the middle of a clump of cactus [with a zigzag path leading in for 'privacy'], and the only water source is a well with a hand pump near the center of the rancho, it's easier to look past glitz, glamor, and hype about how great things are going, for a relative few.
After over half a century I can still almost relive being lashed or whipped, the welts and weals across the back, the pain, the terror at realizing telling the truth wasn't working and making a false confession was only making it worse because the people responsible had already made up their minds before talking to me based on someone else preferring to avoid punishment for a minor misdeed. This is why I can [at times] be brutally honest. As well as seeing a child being abused could switch me into lethal mode in a heartbeat.
If my life is like a story or movie, it's a very mixed genre. There is the lead protagonist still seeking an elusive redemption -- a character who can never quite grasp why humans do some of the effed up things they do. At any rate I can weave [however inexpertly] bits and pieces of the reality I've experienced into the ones I can imagine and hopefully get readers to take a step back to reexamine some of their long-held assumptions. Too often I doubt I have the ability to adequately express certain concepts others find foreign, not betting I have enough skill at this point.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2020 16:38:07 GMT
Have you thought about writing a memoir?
Also, if you were married to an 80-year-old you'd think you wete young.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Mar 11, 2020 17:09:36 GMT
Have you thought about writing a memoir? Also, if you were married to an 80-year-old you'd think you wete young. Maggie,
What I'm currently working combines tidbits of my past experience extrapolated to bring life to a character whose life would be far more interesting than mine ever could be. Even if I did try to write a memoir, I doubt anyone would find it believable because no matter how factual I may get, most people have difficulty suspending their disbelief simply due to the reason it makes them uncomfortable.
Ever wonder why old veterans rarely speak of their wartime experiences? Ever ask why so many children, teenagers, and / or young adults these days are opting for suicide rather than life? Ever wonder what goes into the 'thousand-yard stare'?
One common ingredient to all three is someone going to a hell society doesn't prepare its young for, then those individuals having to return to the 'normal sane' world of puppies and kittens as if nothing happened [because that's what society expects to happen]. Once someone has been on a walking tour of hell and brought some of it back [in the form of all the horribly dead puppies and dead kittens seen in far too vivid memories], 'opting out' is often seen as preferable to trying to talk to people who can't relate, and who often can't comprehend just how horrific the returnee's experience was.
For those returnees from hell who find a new 'bearable' [as opposed to regaining a subjective 'normal'], it can take a long time to set aside self-destructive habits and allow raw memories to at least partially scar over.
In my view it's better if people who've never experienced some of what I have don't read all the details, [that sense of going to hell and bringing some of it back is something to not inflict in large doses on others].
Besides, pity is irrelevant while 'compassion' without substance [which does not effect change for the better] is useless.
I've also seen just how much mercy most humans are willing to offer those they hold power over, the amount is underwhelmingly contemptibly negligible.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2020 17:41:09 GMT
Have you thought about writing a memoir? Also, if you were married to an 80-year-old you'd think you wete young. Maggie,
What I'm currently working combines tidbits of my past experience extrapolated to bring life to a character whose life would be far more interesting than mine ever could be. Even if I did try to write a memoir, I doubt anyone would find it believable because no matter how factual I may get, most people have difficulty suspending their disbelief simply due to the reason it makes them uncomfortable.
Ever wonder why old veterans rarely speak of their wartime experiences? Ever ask why so many children, teenagers, and / or young adults these days are opting for suicide rather than life? Ever wonder what goes into the 'thousand-yard stare'?
One common ingredient to all three is someone going to a hell society doesn't prepare its young for, then those individuals having to return to the 'normal sane' world of puppies and kittens as if nothing happened [because that's what society expects to happen]. Once someone has been on a walking tour of hell and brought some of it back [in the form of all the horribly dead puppies and dead kittens seen in far too vivid memories], 'opting out' is often seen as preferable to trying to talk to people who can't relate, and who often can't comprehend just how horrific the returnee's experience was.
For those returnees from hell who find a new 'bearable' [as opposed to regaining a subjective 'normal'], it can take a long time to set aside self-destructive habits and allow raw memories to at least partially scar over.
In my view it's better if people who've never experienced some of what I have don't read all the details, [that sense of going to hell and bringing some of it back is something to not inflict in large doses on others].
Besides, pity is irrelevant while 'compassion' without substance [which does not effect change for the better] is useless.
I've also seen just how much mercy most humans are willing to offer those they hold power over, the amount is underwhelmingly contemptibly negligible.
That's interesting. The realities are so completely different. It's like I said to my brother a little while ago; it's like someone coming back from war and their neighbour complaining about the uncut grass in their yard.
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