Somewhat imprinted by having been raised in a more formal culture, I considered "Howdy" but even after living in the U.S. for 33 years, it still just isn't me :-).
That I escaped being indoctrinated by the religion-permeated culture in South Africa was highly against the odds, but luckily I was simply born skeptic so it never 'took'. English is my second language; I make the rare slip in singular/plural verb sometimes but otherwise very fluent.
I'm an artistic type who sculpts, writes, paint, plays with camera ... and I have a passion for Geology. My interest is not in debating ... not my thing ... but selectively joining a conversation which I find of interest. I live alone, a mid-seventies liberal gal, reads a lot of non-fiction, watches zero television, and streams mostly BBC material to my smart TV set.
I found this Forum by googling; I belong to Agnostics.com but it doesn't quite fill my need for some online companionship. Your forum is listed as part of a long list of Atheism resources on some other website, I think it was AtheismUniverse or something like that. So I clicked through that list and when I came to yours, I liked what I saw.
Welcome. We have a lot of people here who like to play with cameras, and are very good at it. There's a page just for showing off photos we've taken, and also a regular photo challenge you might like to join -- we're voting on the most recent challenge now, done on the theme of "blue". I'm not good with tech but somebody will be able to link you to it, it you haven't found it already, that is.
Hello Dede. Welcome to our warm little family - I am sure you will enjoy interacting with all the interesting HAF members. You and I seem to have quite a lot in common, since I am also SA-born; in my case half-Jewish with English as first language. I am happy to hear that you practise sculpture and photography, which are two of my interests as well.
Hello Dede
When I read your intro I thought you were hermes2015 in drag you have so much in common! Well I'm glad you came here after a little research and I hope you settle in. We have a seriously disparate bunch of men and women here. Trolls don't last long, we like our little corner of the net reasonably civil.
Regards
Chris
Welcome to the forum Dede.
Your brief description of yourself would suggest that you might enjoy this little forum. Quite a few of us are cut from a similar mould. I believe that you will find us friendly, intelligent, caring and culturally neutral. We have members from all over the world which allows us some interesting perspectives.
The only warning is that we are occasionally profane. Most of us have precious little respect for our current US president. But politics is definitely not our predominant subject. Books, cooking, humor, and other general interest stuff is more to our liking.
I am trying to figure out how to reply to a comment, here goes my experiment: No fear, it is not possible to have more contempt for that POS in our esteemed White House than I do. And occasional profanity? I was once told by a devout, misleadingly traditional gal that she "LOVES it when an elegant woman with an accent says the F-word" (after I had said it) :-) . Now, let's see if my reply posts where it should!
Quote from: Icarus on February 16, 2020, 08:11:25 PM
Welcome to the forum Dede.
Your brief description of yourself would suggest that you might enjoy this little forum. Quite a few of us are cut from a similar mould. I believe that you will find us friendly, intelligent, caring and culturally neutral. We have members from all over the world which allows us some interesting perspectives.
The only warning is that we are occasionally profane. Most of us have precious little respect for our current US president. But politics is definitely not our predominant subject. Books, cooking, humor, and other general interest stuff is more to our liking.
To reply, hit the quote on the post you want to reply to and go to the bottom of the dialogue window and then start your reply.
Quote from: Tank on February 16, 2020, 09:17:06 PM
To reply, hit the quote on the post you want to reply to and go to the bottom of the dialogue window and then start your reply.
Thank you for the help! I did go read the FAQs but sometimes I can be pretty obtuse (smile)
and thank you for the warm welcome.
Quote from: Dede on February 16, 2020, 09:27:02 PM
Quote from: Tank on February 16, 2020, 09:17:06 PM
To reply, hit the quote on the post you want to reply to and go to the bottom of the dialogue window and then start your reply.
Thank you for the help! I did go read the FAQs but sometimes I can be pretty obtuse (smile)
and thank you for the warm welcome.
Spot on!
Quote from: hermes2015 on February 16, 2020, 07:13:43 PM
Hello Dede. Welcome to our warm little family - I am sure you will enjoy interacting with all the interesting HAF members. You and I seem to have quite a lot in common, since I am also SA-born; in my case half-Jewish with English as first language. I am happy to hear that you practise sculpture and photography, which are two of my interests as well.
Delighted ! I'll participate in the photography group, sure ... I confess to using Auto mode often; for me it's about the composition mostly and I love macro of flowers. Been doing pottery for 50-odd years, handbuilt pieces and sculpture. I dabbled in glass fusing too, and making jewelry from silver clay as well as copper and bronze clay. Thank you for reaching out and saying Hallo!
Quote from: Sandra Craft on February 16, 2020, 06:49:32 PM
Welcome. We have a lot of people here who like to play with cameras, and are very good at it. There's a page just for showing off photos we've taken, and also a regular photo challenge you might like to join -- we're voting on the most recent challenge now, done on the theme of "blue". I'm not good with tech but somebody will be able to link you to it, it you haven't found it already, that is.
Hi Sandra, thank you for the welcome, and for directing me to the Photography activity. I went and voted for my favorites :-)
geology?
you re already a winner in my bbook.
Hello and welcome to the forum! :computerwave:
Hello Dede,
Welcome. :wave hi:
Did you bring the tacos?
Quote from: Dede on February 16, 2020, 09:35:17 PM
Quote from: hermes2015 on February 16, 2020, 07:13:43 PM
Hello Dede. Welcome to our warm little family - I am sure you will enjoy interacting with all the interesting HAF members. You and I seem to have quite a lot in common, since I am also SA-born; in my case half-Jewish with English as first language. I am happy to hear that you practise sculpture and photography, which are two of my interests as well.
Delighted ! I'll participate in the photography group, sure ... I confess to using Auto mode often; for me it's about the composition mostly and I love macro of flowers. Been doing pottery for 50-odd years, handbuilt pieces and sculpture. I dabbled in glass fusing too, and making jewelry from silver clay as well as copper and bronze clay. Thank you for reaching out and saying Hallo!
After I got my final degree I was planning to drop science to become a ceramic sculptor, but life had other plans for me. I've also made silver jewellery, but in the traditional way.
Quote from: Tank on February 16, 2020, 08:09:03 PM
Hello Dede
When I read your intro I thought you were hermes2015 in drag ...
:rofl:
You cheeky boy!
Hello Dede, greetings and salutations from the Land Downunder. I reckon you'll fit in just fine!
Quote from: billy rubin on February 16, 2020, 09:49:16 PM
geology?
you re already a winner in my bbook.
Hi Billy, you too? I read geology textbooks for fun :-) Are you by any chance also a rockhound? I love tumbling my finds (lived in Oregon several years and collected some nice agates).
Morning Dede
What is your avatar image?
Quote from: Dede link=topic=16460.msg397291#msg397291
Hi Billy, you too? I read geology textbooks for fun :-) Are you by any chance also a rockhound? I love tumbling my finds (lived in Oregon several years and collected some nice agates).
i try not to collect rockz but i cant help myself. my house is littered with interezting pebblez, cobbles, and some cores. mostly leverites, to be honezt.
oregon is beautiful even without th e rocks. zpectacular coastline.
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2020, 08:18:39 AM
Morning Dede
What is your avatar image?
hi Tank, my avatar image is a line drawing of a type of African savannah bird, namely a guinea fowl. I had a scarf, long ago, printed with this design and hand-copied it because I love the African 'feel' of it - in Afrikaans a guinea fowl is a 'tarentaal'.
Quote from: billy rubin on February 17, 2020, 12:20:48 PM
Quote from: Dede link=topic=16460.msg397291#msg397291
Hi Billy, you too? I read geology textbooks for fun :-) Are you by any chance also a rockhound? I love tumbling my finds (lived in Oregon several years and collected some nice agates).
i try not to collect rockz but i cant help myself. my house is littered with interezting pebblez, cobbles, and some cores. mostly leverites, to be honezt.
oregon is beautiful even without th e rocks. zpectacular coastline.
chuckling ... yes, rockhounding is addictive. Wherever I go, I pay attention to the pebbles underfoot ... and if looking at a landscape, my mind is watching for geological manifestations like uplift, sedimentation, conglomerate, whatsoever.
There are several fantastically interesting areas near where I live on the Central Coast of California, one is Point Lobos where an ancient submarine canyon is exposed, after uplift. Geologists come from all over the world to study it. Also, only 80 miles or so away, is the Pinnacles National Monument which is a very ancient volcano, 90% of which was carried north by the San Andreas Fault (then buried, which slowed its erosion). Almost two hundred miles to the south is the other 10% remnant, on the other side of the fault, and much more eroded. This stuff is just mind-bogglingly intriguing!
Quote from: Dede on February 17, 2020, 05:50:47 PM
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2020, 08:18:39 AM
Morning Dede
What is your avatar image?
hi Tank, my avatar image is a line drawing of a type of African savannah bird, namely a guinea fowl. I had a scarf, long ago, printed with this design and hand-copied it because I love the African 'feel' of it - in Afrikaans a guinea fowl is a 'tarentaal'.
I have a guinea fowl in the freezer. I think it's time to defrost it! :)
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2020, 06:39:15 PM
Quote from: Dede on February 17, 2020, 05:50:47 PM
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2020, 08:18:39 AM
Morning Dede
What is your avatar image?
hi Tank, my avatar image is a line drawing of a type of African savannah bird, namely a guinea fowl. I had a scarf, long ago, printed with this design and hand-copied it because I love the African 'feel' of it - in Afrikaans a guinea fowl is a 'tarentaal'.
I have a guinea fowl in the freezer. I think it's time to defrost it! :)
Sounds tasty. :yum:
Hello and welcome to HAF,
Dede. I hope that you enjoy your time here. :)
:animwelcome:
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2020, 06:39:15 PM
Quote from: Dede on February 17, 2020, 05:50:47 PM
Quote from: Tank on February 17, 2020, 08:18:39 AM
Morning Dede
What is your avatar image?
hi Tank, my avatar image is a line drawing of a type of African savannah bird, namely a guinea fowl. I had a scarf, long ago, printed with this design and hand-copied it because I love the African 'feel' of it - in Afrikaans a guinea fowl is a 'tarentaal'.
I have a guinea fowl in the freezer. I think it's time to defrost it! :)
Yum! I love Guinea fowl. I'll be over to help you deal with it! LOL
Welcome, Dede!
Quote from: Dark Lightning on February 18, 2020, 12:49:48 AM
Welcome, Dede!
Thank you, Dark Lightning ... I see we're practically neighbors (on an international forum, yes) :-)
I've done a lot of reading of old posts, since I joined a day ago, and really like it here.
Quote from: Recusant on February 17, 2020, 09:07:09 PM
Hello and welcome to HAF, Dede. I hope that you enjoy your time here. :)
:animwelcome:
thank you, Recusant ... I am indeed enjoying the atmosphere here. Glad I found you folks!
Quote from: hermes2015 on February 17, 2020, 03:49:42 AM
Quote from: Dede on February 16, 2020, 09:35:17 PM
Quote from: hermes2015 on February 16, 2020, 07:13:43 PM
Hello Dede. Welcome to our warm little family - I am sure you will enjoy interacting with all the interesting HAF members. You and I seem to have quite a lot in common, since I am also SA-born; in my case half-Jewish with English as first language. I am happy to hear that you practise sculpture and photography, which are two of my interests as well.
Delighted ! I'll participate in the photography group, sure ... I confess to using Auto mode often; for me it's about the composition mostly and I love macro of flowers. Been doing pottery for 50-odd years, handbuilt pieces and sculpture. I dabbled in glass fusing too, and making jewelry from silver clay as well as copper and bronze clay. Thank you for reaching out and saying Hallo!
After I got my final degree I was planning to drop science to become a ceramic sculptor, but life had other plans for me. I've also made silver jewellery, but in the traditional way.
I, too, could only indulge my creativity fully after retirement. I was teaching business courses in S.Africa and after immigration to U.S. I chose to not bother with getting credentialled but work towards a pension at a large municipal utility, as Executive Secretary. Remember before spellcheck, and ask Suri, executives actually had Executive Secretaries who were smart enough to do research, the knowledge of where to access all kinds of information before the internet, and so on? well that was a fairly good job for me and I did NOT have to deal with American high schoolers in a classroom setting, which would've cost me my sanity :-)
It seems that I can share more stuff about myself, so that you may get to know me, in this thread. It occurred to me that you don't know that I love poetry, and write some myself. Not just any old poetry, but stuff that speaks to me, like this poem below which I'm going to share with you ... by a woman named Ansel Elkins ...
She titled her poem "The Autobiography of Eve" and you can find more of her poetry at https://poets.org/poem/autobiography-eve
Wearing nothing but snakeskin
boots, I blazed a footpath, the first
radical road out of that old kingdom
toward a new unknown.
When I came to those great flaming gates
of burning gold,
I stood alone in terror at the threshold
between Paradise and Earth.
There I heard a mysterious echo:
my own voice
singing to me from across the forbidden
side. I shook awake—
at once alive in a blaze of green fire.
Let it be known: I did not fall from grace.
I leapt
to freedom.
Ansel Elkins
Quote from: Dede on February 26, 2020, 02:56:12 AM
It seems that I can share more stuff about myself, so that you may get to know me, in this thread. It occurred to me that you don't know that I love poetry, and write some myself. Not just any old poetry, but stuff that speaks to me, like this poem below which I'm going to share with you ... by a woman named Ansel Elkins ...
She titled her poem "The Autobiography of Eve" and you can find more of her poetry at https://poets.org/poem/autobiography-eve
Wearing nothing but snakeskin
boots, I blazed a footpath, the first
radical road out of that old kingdom
toward a new unknown.
When I came to those great flaming gates
of burning gold,
I stood alone in terror at the threshold
between Paradise and Earth.
There I heard a mysterious echo:
my own voice
singing to me from across the forbidden
side. I shook awake—
at once alive in a blaze of green fire.
Let it be known: I did not fall from grace.
I leapt
to freedom.
Ansel Elkins
Dede, there is some strong imagery in that poem. Does poetry inspire your visual art work at all? I remember that a teacher read an Ingrid Jonker poem to us in class one day. It made quite an impression on me, although I usually find poetry hard to understand.
Quote from: hermes2015 on February 26, 2020, 04:14:13 AM
Quote from: Dede on February 26, 2020, 02:56:12 AM
It seems that I can share more stuff about myself, so that you may get to know me, in this thread. It occurred to me that you don't know that I love poetry, and write some myself. Not just any old poetry, but stuff that speaks to me, like this poem below which I'm going to share with you ... by a woman named Ansel Elkins ...
She titled her poem "The Autobiography of Eve" and you can find more of her poetry at https://poets.org/poem/autobiography-eve
Wearing nothing but snakeskin
boots, I blazed a footpath, the first
radical road out of that old kingdom
toward a new unknown.
When I came to those great flaming gates
of burning gold,
I stood alone in terror at the threshold
between Paradise and Earth.
There I heard a mysterious echo:
my own voice
singing to me from across the forbidden
side. I shook awake—
at once alive in a blaze of green fire.
Let it be known: I did not fall from grace.
I leapt
to freedom.
Ansel Elkins
Dede, there is some strong imagery in that poem. Does poetry inspire your visual art work at all? I remember that a teacher read an Ingrid Jonker poem to us in class one day. It made quite an impression on me, although I usually find poetry hard to understand.
Yes, that strong imagery is what captured me ... I can see it all, in my mind's eye ... the serpent which had been turned into a pair of sexy thigh-high boots ;-) the young woman standing on the edge of that abyss, the choice of buying into the church-induced idea of sin and woman being the sinful seductress ... BUT! she can toss all that out, and blaze herself a new path! and not buy into the 'religious' bullshit of being CAST OUT, but instead LEAPT TO FREEDOM. Wow, that's my modern girl!
You mention that in school poetry was hard to understand. I have a wonderful book by Ted Kooser, Poet Laureate of several years ago, titled "The Poetry Home Repair Manual - Practical Advice for Beginning Poets" and I went in search of this little book, minutes ago, so that I could quote two paragraphs from it which, for me, explains why so many poems are, indeed, so obscure that someone has to INTERPRET it for us ... me, I just ignore those, as not worthy of my attention. Ted Kooser writes:
"Part of the reason for our country's lack of interest in poetry is that most of us learned in school that finding the meaning of a poem is way too much work, like cracking a walnut and digging out the meat. Most readers have plenty to do that's far more interesting than puzzling over poems. I'll venture that 99 percent of the people who read the 'New Yorker' prefer the cartoons to the poems.
A lot of this resistance is to be blamed on poets. Some go out of their way to make their poems difficult if not downright discouraging. That may be because difficult poems are what they think they're expected to write to advance their careers. They know it's the professional interpreters of poetry - book reviewers and literary critics - who most often establish a poet's reputation, and that those interpreters are attracted to poems that offer opportunities to show off their skills at interpretation. A poet who writes poetry that doesn't require explanation, who writes clear and accessible poems, is of little use to critics building their own careers as interpreters.
It is possible to nourish a small and appreciative audience for poetry if poets would only think less about the reception of critics and more about the needs of readers. I believe with all my heart that it's a virtue to show our appreciation for readers by writing with kindness, generosity, and humility toward them."
And then Ted Kooser shares one of his own poems:
Once you were young along a river, tree to tree,
with sleek black wings and red shoulders.
You sang for yourself but all of them listened to you.
Now you're and old blue heron with yellow eyes
and a gray neck tough as a snake.
You open your book on its spine, a split fish,
and pick over the difficult ribs,
turning your better eye down to the work
of eating your words as you go."
Ted Kooser
Quote from: Dede on February 26, 2020, 06:39:55 PM
...
And then Ted Kooser shares one of his own poems:
Once you were young along a river, tree to tree,
with sleek black wings and red shoulders.
You sang for yourself but all of them listened to you.
Now you're and old blue heron with yellow eyes
and a gray neck tough as a snake.
You open your book on its spine, a split fish,
and pick over the difficult ribs,
turning your better eye down to the work
of eating your words as you go."
Ted Kooser
I still have a problem with poetry, but to me this Kooser poem has the clarity and vigour of Walt Whitman. To this day, the only two poets I can read easily are Whitman and Allen Ginsberg.