The list shifts a lot from day to day. But some things are constant.
Favorite public physical activity: aikido. I’ve been at it since 1980, but a few years ago convinced myself I couldn’t do it anymore: too many injuries, too much pain. A certain Critter from south of the border caused me to stop and rethink my assumptions. I’ve been back at it since October, and have booked my flight to aikido summer camp–six days of training, hours and hours each day. Fortunately, I can sit some classes out.
Favorite public physical activity done sitting down: eating. Especially recently, because there are so many great and creative restaurants appearing around town (or nearby) and because I have good friends that I can occasionally share that with.
Favorite vacation of all time: two weeks in Scotland, England and Wales, including three nights on the magical island of Islay in the Hebrides. Driving on the left, drinking real ale, visiting seven distilleries, sitting in the middle of a tiny road waiting for the sheep to wander off and let me pass, drinking more real ale (finally, a “mild”), watching a good friend get married in a centuries-old manor house, visiting The Mousehole in Cornwall.
Favorite Critter: Zooey, who just helped me figure out how to include images when I was gnashing my teeth and thinking about screaming out the back door into the night. Thanks so much!
TheZoo 
Now, I’m hungry, want a beer and to ride on that cable car. =)
**blush**
What kind of food is that, gummitch? Now I’m hungry.
Happy New Year, Zep!
Salmon, spinach and (I think) Yukon Golds.
Yum. Where did you eat that?
A Happy New Year to You Too Zooey!
Do you have any special New Years traditions, Zep?
Happy Ouroboros Day!
That’s a cool looking picture, Zep.
Do you have any special New Years traditions, Zep?
Naw. I’m eating someBBQ Vienna Sausage out of the can…and no new years beans!
I had no idea there was such a thing as BBQ Vienna sausages. 😀
That’s a cool looking picture, Zep.
I thought so….
I had no idea there was such a thing as BBQ Vienna sausages. -Z
Well, they can only be found in the exotic food aisle at high end grocery stores =P
Probably the same high end store Willyloman finds the Cheze Pufes. 😉
Cheze Pufes are the food of Gods and Salesmen
Zep – does the picture represent the Gnostic beliefs?
Another favorite thing – snow falling at TPZoo
The snow is nice, isn’t it? Eggy let me know about it. I really like it.
Zep – does the picture represent the Gnostic beliefs?
We are trapped in a materialistic world….
Zep, Gnostics use that snake symbol in the picture you linked and Gnostics are far from being material. The snake eating itself represents the cyclic nature similar to the Yin/Yang.
Actually Cats r Flyfishn its a mandala.
Creation Mandala – ouroboros
Description of the relation of the human beings to the cosmos. In the outer circle is shown [the dragon] Ouroboros biting his own tail as a symbol of the eternal circuit of the existance.
Oh how stupid of me… the snake is the Ouroboros.
Zep – thanks. It’s very mystical and magical. I have a strong curiousity regarding the Gnostics.
You can call me “Cats”
Gnosticism (from Greek gnōsis(γνώσις), knowledge) refers to a diverse, syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect spirit -Wikipedia
You can call me “Cats”
Cats it is =)
Is anyone else having difficulty connecting to TP? I can’t seem to download the page.
Cats, I’m not having any difficulty. Just an unforgivably stupid troll over there…
It must be my Internet service. I’ll contact them tomorrow. I can’t get to my email either.
Ugh, what a pain.
So you have been practicing already, gummitch? I’m so glad that you have changed your mind.
Cats, you’re missing nothing at TP. First we had The Joker, and now we’ve got Bartlebee and his doppelganger going at it like two 8 year olds high on Halloween candy.
Our side are turning into trolls on TP. Such idiots.
I rarely post at TP any more. When I do, I usually just leave one comment and walk away.
Might as well walk away once Bart & his trolls get going. They can go on literally for hours, days even. It’s completely stupid, and I don’t know why TP allows it. It’s troll behavior, no matter who’s doing it.
They are still arguing over whether “atheism” is a “belief”, though I am unsure of why that matters.
I know that there have been people who have formed a kind of “quasi-religion”, developed into a “belief system” that posits the non-existence of any kind fo god. I am not one of those atheists. I am atheist (with a small “a”) simply because I believe that gods do not exist. And I emphasize that approach over “I do not believe that gods exist.” That sounds like there is room for doubt in my mind, and there is none. I am completely unconcerned about the ramifications that others, who do believe in gods, may feel I will suffer because of this.
It’s a completely asinine argument between fools who can’t stand the perception that they might be even slightly wrong.
Bart started going off on dbadass yesterday, and it was completely unwarranted. I think Bart confused db for someone else, but he would never let it go.
I don;t really feel like combing through the whole dialog (nor would I ask you to), but do you know why it matters so much to anyone’s point why “athesim” is or is not a “belief”?
I mean, is bart trying to equate the validity of “atheism” with any other religion, simply because the non-existence of god can not proven any more than the existence cannot be proven (though this was be intentional on the deity’s part, since the question of an actually-existent deity could be resolved immediately.)
I think you’d have to go back weeks to figure that out.
As far as I can tell, Bart got all insulted because someone said that religious people were nuts or something, and then somehow they got onto the definition of atheism, which Bart insists is a belief system, and the others insist it is not.
I think the real fight is about who is right. Or who can last the longest. Stupid.
I just wish people could learn at an early enough age about the history of how people in power have manipulated their subjects into believing what the rulers want them to believe. This is the only reason that organized religion has survived all these millenia. But I think that if teachers started teaching students how the “grups” manipulate them, the parents would start complaining about how the teachers are interfering with how they raise their kids. But it can’t be put off until college because not everyone will get there. They need to learn it before they leave high school, or else they will fall victim to it the rest of their lives. (It’s not simply for the sake of “social cohesion”, it’s manipulation for the purpose of subjegation. That’s how I see it, anyway.)
That will NEVER happen, Wayne. Religious belief is too ingrained in too many generations to allow it a moment’s thought.
I’ve seen it dawn on the younger students in my Soc classes about how they’ve been manipulated by the agent groups with religion, and it’s very painful for them.
I think all we can really do is keep speaking the truth, and support those who make the realization.
Bart is batshit, plain and simple. If memory serves, he actually started the argument a few weeks ago by claiming that all atheists were fanatics, no different from fundies. But the real issue is that neither he or a couple of others there can ever let anything go and they have to “win”, no matter how inane the argument.
I almost got caught up for a second there, and was on the way to looking “atheism” up in the OED. “What are you doing?” I asked myself and went back to Stargate SG-1. Far more intelligent.
You’re right, gummitch. It’s sad because I think he’s really smart, but he’s so confrontational that it’s pathological.
Yesterday, when he was attacking dbadass, I told him to seek help. He said “Blow me.” I came back with “Not likely. Happy New Year, Bart.” And all of a sudden it was like a switch was thrown, and he wished me a happy new year in return.
Bizarre. I’m glad he doesn’t come around here anymore.
Well, I think I just pissed him off on the Hucklebee thread. Mission accomplished. 😀
I gave you a “recommend” on that one, Wayne. 😀
I almost got caught up for a second there, and was on the way to looking “atheism” up in the OED. “What are you doing?” I asked myself and went back to Stargate SG-1. Far more intelligent.
I have long been a fan of SG-1 (and Atlantis looks like it will get even better this month.) Our favorite episode is “Window of Opportunity” (the Groundhog Day episode for Jack and Teal’C, in case you don;t recognize titles.)
I toyed with the idea of giving his response to me a recommend, since he quoted me in it. 🙂
I had to do that just because he kept claiming that we were “illiterate”. If he did it once, I would call it a typo, but he did it each and every time. That’s not a typo, that illiterate. I had to. 😉
He would just take it as someone agreeing with him completely, and then keep up the good fight even more.
You missed The Joker earlier. He was going to do a search on TP for something he said Bart had said months ago.
He came back and said his search for “Bartlebee” came up with zero hits, and he wondered what Bart had done with his comments — even though Bartlebee was clearly on TP at that very moment.
**insert Three Stooges sound effect here**
To be honest, I spend more time here and less time there, so I haven’t kept up with the day-to-day dramas at TP. It seems like it keeps breaking down into semantic arguments.
Is saying “I believe p does not exist” the same as saying “I do not believe p exists”? One asserts the non-existence of p, while the other asserts a lack of belief inthe existence of p. It’s more the connotation than anything. The former comes across as more definitive, as if you have looked at all the available evidence and concluded that p does not (and possibly never did) exist. The latter comes across as there being a door open to the possibility of being wrong, as if you have looked at the evidence and were not yet convinced that p exists.
On another Sci-Fi channel show I watch, “Ghost Hunters”, the people believe that ghosts exist, but they go into each investyigation trying to disprove that the claims of paranormal are, in fact, paranormal. They are normally plumbers, so when people say they hear bangin sounds, they can easily find pipes that would bang when boilers start up. They then say that this does not support the existence of ghosts since ot could easily be a normal phenomenon.
Wayne, I’ve been working my way through SG-1 from the beginning thanks to DVDs. I’m in the middle of Season 7 now. Hard to pick a favorite, although the episode with the space race (and the parody sports comments and commercials) is pretty high on the list.
SG-1 requires a willing suspension of disbelief, especially when everyone in the galaxy(ies) speaks English and every planet looks like British Columbia. Still, I’m hooked and Amanda Tapping can’t completely account for that.
Wayne, I’ve been over there for only the last few days, since I was sick whatever day that was — TP has gone mad again. I don’t know if it’s because no one is manning the store over the holidays, or if it’s always that way.
I was completely amazed that the atheist argument was still going on, since I seem to remember noticing it sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Gummitch,
Amanda Tapping?
Is that anything like Larry Craig tapping?
Yes, gummitch, “Space Race” is another great episode. And when you finally get to it, “200” is hilarious, too. We also like one of the earlier ones, “The Crystal Skull”. (“Now we await the giant aliens.”) And the two-parter “Moebius” (which comes later in the series) is another excellent one (two?). So many great episodes.
No, Zooey, that’s her real (stage) name. “Tapping”. To be fair, the show did just end a ten-year run last season, so she was using the name long before the “Senate Queen” brought new meaning to the word. And considering her good looks, I’m sure there’s more talk in the sci-fi-geek world of “Tapping Amanda” than anything else. Not me, of course. Besides being married, I like her character for her brilliant mind.
No, Amanda Tapping is nothing like Craig tapping. Trust me on that one.
The brilliant mind….uh huh. 😉
gummitch just jumped into Bart’s crazy swamp. 😐
Tapping’s Stargate character was groundbreaking because, while she is attractive, Tapping created a character plausibly brilliant, courageous and tough. With a couple of rare exceptions (which were almost self-mocking), no episode ever relied on her looks but always the fact that she’d be the one to think the team out of trouble and that she could kick some serious ass without looking like Xena the Warrior Queen.
And she’s a grownup, a mature woman holding her own.
Gummitch couldn’t resist. I don’t want to watch any more, though; it’s way too much like a really ugly train wreck.
I just used the Google to find Ms Tapping. She’s not what I’d pictured — a 20-something with too much lip gloss. Sorry guys, that really wasn’t fair of me. 😦
Zooey, I have always been attracted to intelligent women. 🙂
And on that note, I bid you all good night. I’ve done my part for the bb thread over there. I noticed he finally correctly pluralized “dictionary” (after continuing to do it wrong several more, possibly because he was just copying and pasting himself.)
I’ll see you again later in the week. And if the Lottery Gods come through for me, I’ll be here full time! 😀
Goodnight, Wayne!
Wait a minute…you believe in Lottery Gods…? 😉
So I didn’t miss much at TP last night. I stopped regularly posting at TP last fall because of all the trolls and troll bashing. The threads were getting boring. Then someone directed me to this blog. So I spend most of my blog time here and at Crooks and Liars (which is well monitored).