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What's on your mind today?

Started by Steve Reason, August 25, 2007, 08:15:06 PM

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Steve Reason

#45
Man, I've read through some posts over at the WWGHA forum today. I'm not a member, but I thought I'd take a look to see what it's like. God almighty, are there ever some seriously scary people on that board. Not that all the atheists and such are always well behaved, but so many of the religious members are simply nuts.

There's some serious hate on that board and not a lot of reason. Mind you, I only read a few hundred posts, but with few exceptions, every time someone tried to reason with a religious person,  it was "god this" and "god that"; or hellfire and condemnation of the most vitriolic type. It's like they can't reason.

Seriously scary, sad stuff. Man, this world might be screwed.  :(
I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. ~ Mark Twain

http://rumtickle.blogspot.com/

rlrose328

#46
MIGHT be screwed?  Today, I'm feeling like there's no hope and ending it would be the best alternative.  :(   Hormones.

Seriously though... I've never been over on the forums there, just read the articles and watched the videos.  I was going to go over there this morning and check it out, but based on your "review" Steve, I think I'll pass for today.  

As for me, in addition to raging hormones, I'm at my wits end with my son and my husband.  Homework last night was a screaming match and I'm so sick of it.  And the school year just started!  Ugh.

On the bright side, I'm going on a scrapbooking retreat this weekend.  Three nights and days of nothing but mindless scrapbooking.  Unfortunately (there's always one of those, isn't there?), this is a new retreat company I'm going with and they have a no-booze policy.  THAT can't be good.  Means it's probably Mormon.  The other retreat company I book with has a "if you like it, bring it" policy... last time, I took a bottle of wine, but on the booze table was everything from Schnapps to Jack!  :-)  Ah well, I'll be going to that retreat again in the spring.   Drinking in this mood wouldn't be a good idea anyway.  LOL!
**Kerri**
The Rogue Atheist Scrapbooker
Come visit me on Facebook!


Steve Reason

#47
Quote from: "rlrose328"MIGHT be screwed?  Today, I'm feeling like there's no hope and ending it would be the best alternative.  :D
I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. ~ Mark Twain

http://rumtickle.blogspot.com/

Whitney

#48
Quote from: "Steve Reason"Please don't talk that way, Kerri. Get some help if you need to, and explain to your family how you feel. Nothing, and nobody is worth killing yourself over. It sounds like they're the ones that are wrong, so why should you feel bad for their ignorance? You can only do so much to help someone, after that it's on them.

I hope you feel better and have fun at your retreat. And there's always a way to sneak some booze in.  :D

^good advice

If you mix vodka with orange juice no one will know you have alcohol unless you get too drunk....a high school friend of mine use to bring that mixture to class on occasion and I only knew because he told me (dumb thing to do but good idea for non-school related drinking).  Just don't offer to share.

rlrose328

#49
Quote from: "Steve Reason"Please don't talk that way, Kerri. Get some help if you need to, and explain to your family how you feel. Nothing, and nobody is worth killing yourself over. It sounds like they're the ones that are wrong, so why should you feel bad for their ignorance? You can only do so much to help someone, after that it's on them.

I hope you feel better and have fun at your retreat. And there's always a way to sneak some booze in.  :D    I won't say that again...

On the alcohol front, I really can't do hard alcohol anymore.  Ugh.  Jack and I were friends long ago, but I'm just a wine girl now.  A friend recommended I get a bottle of that Mountain Dew Extreme, the red one, and just dump it out and replace it with my White Zin.  Unfortunately, wine has a very distinctive odor.  I may just have to scrap sober.  LOL!  I'm fairly sure from the way the gal worded the "alcohol-free zone" thing that this is run by Mormons.  I'll know for sure tomorrow.  Scrapbooking attracts the religious element, especially Mormons... heck, most of the industry is out of Provo and run by Mormons.  

I don't care really... except when they're all sharing their "Faith Albums" at the retreats.  I've started my own "belief" album which has cartoons, essays, movie reviews (Harry Potter namely) with either a religious or political bent.  The last retreat I went to had layout contests on Friday and Saturday nights.  On Friday, I won the vote with a layout of my son sleeping and got a nice album.  On Saturday, I entered my first Belief layout, "I Am An Atheist," with an essay about "Christianism" from TIME Magazine, and some stuff I'm called as an atheist that it out of line.  Three ladies who had been dining with me the previous two nights... laughing and having a good time, were sitting elsewhere come dinner that night.  LOL!  :lol:   And they stopped talking to me altogether.  Gee, I didn't hold their religiosity against THEM... yet... Oh well.

Okay, now I've gone and written too much.   :roll:

I'll be gone until Sunday or Monday, so this will cover any posts I'd usually do during that time.   :)
**Kerri**
The Rogue Atheist Scrapbooker
Come visit me on Facebook!


Steve Reason

#50
I'm glad to hear it. I'm sorry I jumped the gun. I have some history with this sort of thing so I can be a little jumpy about it.

I feel sorry for you being surrounded by religionists. Those damn Mormons are everywhere. I sometimes wonder who will take over the world first; the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, Scientoligists, or Christians. My money is on the Muslims-- currently they seem the most willing to kill to spread their religion. And Christianity and Islam aren't major religions because meek old grandmas were spreading the word. :D
 
I like wine as well, but I'm intimidated by it. So that and the cost keep me from enjoying it much. But if someone took away my Bacardi Gold and Pepsi, and beer, I think I might have to take up smoking.  :wink:    

Have fun, and try not to piss off the Mormons too much.  :lol:
I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. ~ Mark Twain

http://rumtickle.blogspot.com/

SteveS

#51
Quote from: "rlrose328"On Saturday, I entered my first Belief layout, "I Am An Atheist,"
Yes!  Good for you!  I don't have the faintest clue about scrap booking, but this made me happy.  I admire your "pluck"!

Yeah - the kid thing - sometimes that can just really wear you down.  I've got one that's 3, one that's 5.  Sometimes - the house is just like a war zone.  When it gets too negative, I try to just accentuate every little positive thing they do, and try to ignore (when possible) the negatives.  It works, but it takes time and patience.  Now - after a bad day at work, when I'm physically and mentally exhausted, it can be pretty hard to find the required patience level.  :?  

Eh - common gripes, right?

(Side note: if you smuggle the booze, I would recommend trying very hard not to get caught - unless you want to go down in fame as the drunken atheist who got kicked out of the scrap book convention - which does have a certain ring to it.  You could enter your layouts with a little qualifier "Note: This layout was banned by the LDS church".  Or, try renouncing your atheism for a shot at staying?  "I believe in god - and his name is Bacchus!"  :wink:  Good luck with everything!).

rlrose328

#52
Hey, nobody ever said this parenting thing would be easy, eh?   :)   And the little rascals don't come with instruction manuals!  AND we don't have GOD to rely on for help.  :roll:

Here is my Atheist layout:


Down the left it says: "they say I'm hateful, gay lover, enemy of virtue [quote from Tom DeLay in the article], baby-killer, anti-god... why?"

Most days, I don't feel I'm "anti-god," just anti-god followers.  God doesn't hurt me or affect me at all, it's his babbling idiot followers who make me crazy.

The last time I went to a scrapbooking retreat with a few moms from my son's school, we got very happy on wine and other spirits.  Little scrapbooking got done.   :lol:   But I need the girl time as much as the creating time, so it didn't bother me at all.
**Kerri**
The Rogue Atheist Scrapbooker
Come visit me on Facebook!


Whitney

#53
Any good ideas for wedding scrap book pages?  I have an empty scrapbook that I was going to start filling.  I'm kinda thinking of using photoshop to make the pages instead of all that cutting and pasting....yet, there is a certain bit of catchiness which gets added through the depth layerig creates.

SteveS

#54
Hey - whatever works for you.  Personally, I like beer, hockey, sailing, and good books.  Not necessarily in that order.  And I never grew up, because I still love Legos.  Now I build them with my 5 y/o daughter - its great fun for me and for her.  

Oh - and I like your layout.  Speaking artistically I'm hopelessly clueless  - but this looks very well done to me.  Kudos - and thanks for sharing!

Steve Reason

#55
Quote from: "SteveS"Hey - whatever works for you.  Personally, I like beer, hockey, sailing, and good books.  Not necessarily in that order.  And I never grew up, because I still love Legos.  Now I build them with my 5 y/o daughter - its great fun for me and for her.  

Oh - and I like your layout.  Speaking artistically I'm hopelessly clueless  - but this looks very well done to me.  Kudos - and thanks for sharing!

Well, I've never been sailing but I'd like to. It looks like fun. And I indefinitely like hockey, beer, and good books.

Are we related?   :wink:
I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. ~ Mark Twain

http://rumtickle.blogspot.com/

rlrose328

#56
Quote from: "laetusatheos"Any good ideas for wedding scrap book pages?  I have an empty scrapbook that I was going to start filling.  I'm kinda thinking of using photoshop to make the pages instead of all that cutting and pasting....yet, there is a certain bit of catchiness which gets added through the depth layerig creates.

Digital scrapbooking is all the rage these days and I know a few gals who use photoshop.  There are SEVERAL digital scrapbooking programs out there as well, complete with graphics for any occasion.

I do scrapbooking for others as a business... but business is VERY slow.  LOL!  No projects at all this year.  <sigh>

Check out those digital programs or I can post a few websites that have digital elements to use... plenty of wedding ideas out there if you know where to look.

Quote from: "SteveS"Oh - and I like your layout. Speaking artistically I'm hopelessly clueless - but this looks very well done to me. Kudos - and thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Steve!  I'm particular proud of that layout, especially since it pissed off some believers when they saw it.  Their problem, not mine.

I had an interesting weekend.  I got there Thursday night and stayed up talking to one of the other gals until 4:00 in the morning.  We had a great conversation about kids (her two are both gifted as well), scrapping, how we ended up in Oregon, and religion (of course).  She's a believer and for the most part, appeared extremely tolerant... the kind that "lives" her faith rather than preaching.  Then, after I talked about my mom's Catholocism, she said, "It's unfortunate she converted from Lutheran to that cult."  Um, 'scuse me?  "Yes, Catholicism is a cult... there is NOTHING in the bible to support all of their rituals and other cultish stuff."  

So much for tolerance, eh?   :roll:  :lol:

Oh, and "atheism is a religion, you realize that" she said to me.  I excused myself soon after to go to bed... and decided to make the best of the rest of the weekend.  The woman who owns the business was quietly religious and the other gal (cult-woman's friend) never mentioned her faith but refused to share a very funny quote from one of her favorite movies because it had a bad word that she refuses to say.  <sigh>

We had LOTS of other things to talk about and I did end up having a good time.  And I got 13 pages done for my cruise album, a good amount considering I was there for 3 days.  LOL!

Good to be home!
**Kerri**
The Rogue Atheist Scrapbooker
Come visit me on Facebook!


SteveS

#57
Quote from: "rlrose328"I'm particular proud of that layout, especially since it pissed off some believers when they saw it. Their problem, not mine.
Good art always pisses somebody off, right?  :wink:  

Quote from: "rlrose328"Oh, and "atheism is a religion, you realize that" she said to me.
Yeah - I've heard this charge as well.  Doesn't make any sense at all to me?  :?

SteveS

#58
Quote from: "Steve Reason"Are we related?
Ultimately, I guess the answer is always "yes", right?  Haha.  But not closely would be my guess - I don't think I have any relations in Indy.

Another hockey fan - cool.  There's a nice ice rink in Indy if I remember, close to downtown, right across the street from a parking garage.  I played Ball St. there when I was playing club hockey in college.  I like downtown Indy a lot - spent a lot of time working there a few years ago.  There was a chili place that was awesome (5-way red was the way to go), but I can't remember the name of the place.  The local 'Rock Bottom' franchise was good, too --- had outdoor seating on the sidewalk, and the Bottom brews decent beer.  Their 'Rocktoberfest' is particularly satisfying (or was - haven't been back to one of these for a few years).

Steve Reason

#59
Quote from: "SteveS"
Quote from: "Steve Reason"Are we related?
Ultimately, I guess the answer is always "yes", right?  Haha.  But not closely would be my guess - I don't think I have any relations in Indy.

Another hockey fan - cool.  There's a nice ice rink in Indy if I remember, close to downtown, right across the street from a parking garage.  I played Ball St. there when I was playing club hockey in college.  I like downtown Indy a lot - spent a lot of time working there a few years ago.  There was a chili place that was awesome (5-way red was the way to go), but I can't remember the name of the place.  The local 'Rock Bottom' franchise was good, too --- had outdoor seating on the sidewalk, and the Bottom brews decent beer.  Their 'Rocktoberfest' is particularly satisfying (or was - haven't been back to one of these for a few years).

LOL I know, I'm just kidding. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. :D

I think you're talking about Market Square Arena. MSA was razed a couple of years ago. Unless you're talking about Pan Am Plaza (which I've never been in).

Rock Bottom is still here. There are all sorts of bars and taverns downtown. I'm not sure how many places brew their own beer. Probably not a lot. And there's almost always something going on here that involve beer and the like. I'm not sure where you got that chili. There are lots of eateries in downtown and the surrounding area.

I'm with you about atheism as a religion. All that says is that someone doesn't believe that there is a god. That's it. How is that a religion? Yeah, I admire certain people that are atheist, but I sure as hell don't worship them.
I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. ~ Mark Twain

http://rumtickle.blogspot.com/