Newbie in North Carolina

[BleedingOrchid]

  Hello all! I've been reading the site for the past couple of weeks and really enjoyed what I've read. It's hard to find logic here in the southeastern USA...yes, the bible belt. I'm a recovering methodist and am happily married to a recovering episcopalian.  Hubby & I are owned by a spoiled rotten doggie too! I read a lot of true crime/serial killer literature & I love to cook. I listen to all sorts of music, except country. I can listen to anything but country! LOL

Anywho, look forward to chatting with everyone soon!

[rlrose328]

Welcome, BleedingOrchid!  Nice to have you on board.  I'm Kerri and I live in Oregon with an atheist hubby and one son who doesn't care one way or the other.  :-)  Other than loving to cook, you and I sound a lot alike.  Oh, and the doggie... we're owned by a few spoiled rotten cats.

Looking forward to learning more about you!

[BleedingOrchid]

Hi Kerri!

In reading a lot of the posts here, yours stood out to me the most. It seems we do have lots in common! Do you read a lot? I'm glad to meet you...my name is Em. My hubby is spiritual, but doesn't follow any particular set of beliefs.  We are owned by a 10 lb Yorkie who is the center of our world. No plans for kids. I'm bilingual (Spanish) & hubby & I love hanging out at book stores & coffee shops.

Your turn! Anyone else care to join in the conversation! I'm ready to meet more of the ppl here!

Em

[McQ]

Welcome to the forum! Thanks for sharing some background info!

[BleedingOrchid]

McQ...I do what I can, man. I do what I can. LOL  Great to meet another east coaster!

[myleviathan]

Hi, Em - I'm Andy, er, myleviathan. I'm in Southwest florida and well aware of the Bible belt culture. I became a solid skeptic/non-believer fall of 2005. I was literally raised in the Southern Baptist Church, as my mom was a church secretary through the early years of my life.

Now I'm married to a Christian and we have a little tortie cat who protects us from invisible monsters. She likes to just go crazy for no reason at all.

I see you're a Smashing Pumpkins fan and I think that's fabulous. One of my favorite guitar solos ever is the one in 'Cherub Rock'. I was saddened to hear about Billy Corgan's apparent conversion to Christianity. I don't know much about it, whether it was true or not because I don't follow his career too closely. Either way I guess they put out an album recently so maybe he's back to his old self.

Anyway - welcome to the forum. I've found in my short experience here that it's a nice place to escape talk to like minded individuals.  

[BleedingOrchid]

Hi Andy!

Wow, you were raised as a southern baptist? How did you ever escape? I went to a baptist church under the guise of seeing a christian singer perform. When the "revival" began halfway thru the service, I got outta there fast. I haven't been to a baptist church since. *shudder*  Methodists don't tend to be as reactionary, but they are gossipy & annoying.

Yes, I love the Smashin' Punkins. LOL Yeah, I realized Billy had gone to Xtianity, but perhaps he'll overcome his insanity soon enough. His newest album is really good. He played all of the instruments except for the drums (Jimmy Chamberlain backed him). I swear Billy's taking coke or something to have enough energy to play everything & still sing & everything else. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it. Heh.

Thx for the welcome!

[Whitney]

Hey BleedingOrchid, welcome to the forum

[BleedingOrchid]

Thx laetusatheos... great name!

[Mister Joy]

Hey BleedingOrchid. I'm Kieron - yeah, I know, whoever wrote it on my birth certificate didn't know how to spell - but a lot of people call me 'Joy' because I have the well-deserved reputation of being a callous & unenthusiastic bastard (a nickname originally intended to annoy me, I think, but I warmed to it). Cooking, crime literature and music, eh? Three of my fav. things in life also. One of my favourite authors is Iain Banks - for his stuff as Iain Banks, not his sci-fi alter-ego Iain M. Banks - and I'm religiously obsessed with food. Quite literally. I've even named many of my kitchen utensils.

Have you read/do you like The Wasp Factory? It's the tattiest book on my shelves simply because I've read it so many times. It's utterly grotesque, yet hilarious in places, I think (in that "I shouldn't be laughing at this... but it's clearly intended to be at least slightly humorous so I'll go ahead and laugh anyway" kind of way).

[SteveS]

Hi BleedingOrchid - welcome to the forum!

[BleedingOrchid]

Thanks for all of your welcomes! Mr. Joy...I like that name. I have not read the Wasp Factory. What is it about?

[Mister Joy]

It's difficult to explain what the Wasp Factory is about because it's quite complicated. It's told from the perspective of an adolescent called Frank who lives on an island with his dad off the Scottish mainland. His older mad-dog-killer brother has escaped from a mental hospital and is making his way back home; meanwhile Frank recounts the fonder memories of his childhood (murdering various relatives in at times comical ways) to the reader & carries on playing odd 'war' games & attempting to see the future through bizarre made up religious rituals. It all builds up to a dramatic plot twist at the end. And the blurb on the back, at least on my copy, is only this quote:

"Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anyone for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through."