ROBUST discussion

Where to start? Eclectic writer and visual artist with a unique talent for being interested in (and writing about/drawing/photographing) things that most people aren’t. On the other hand, I rather enjoy being and thinking differently, since most of the more usual things in life bore me to the verge of catatonia.
That said; I am in my later years (57 – when did that happen?) but feel it mostly on my outer chitinous exoskeleton (as opposed to my constructed inner world - not very unique that), have lived abroad longer than I lived in the country of my birth (America), and have had quite a few experiences that fall outside of consensus reality, despite having been classically trained within the rigors of scientific logic (biology/ecology). I am lousy at spelling, make more typos than are good for me and have a peculiar selective photographic memory.

Hi, Brian. Please explain the "peculiar selective photographic memory."

Hi Patricia,
Well, I can be at a party with a good friend, turn to introduce them to somebody and completely forget their name. I constantly forget my own telephone number. But with my ‘peculiar selective photographic memory’, I can see a face on the subway for ten seconds and remember that face (and the time and place) when I walk past that same person on the street again years later. It’s almost as if my mind takes snapshots sometimes and stores them indefinitely.

You will fit right in then Brian!

Thanks Claudine - I like the look of the place. Never been a big fan of censorship.

Brian, my mind takes snapshots, too, but never of faces. I remember people emotionally (how I feel about them) but recall little of what they look like. Servers in restaurants might as well wear bags over their head because I'll have no clue who's waiting on me after they walk away. Those mental snapshots are usually unimportant; I have no idea why they're stored forever in my head.

Now this rings a bell. "And this is my wife, uh—"

But I can turn up at some obscure junction of seven lanes in a forest in rural Slovakia, where I passed once at speed in a car thirty years ago, and remember which one to take to get to a restaurant that closed the year after I was there last.

Hi Brian and welcome to our strange little corner. :)

Welcome to ROBUST, Brian.

Thanks everybody. Nice to be here. I searched through many groups before I found this one.
Yes, Andre, that's it in a nutshell. And that with the wife did happen to me (can she read this?), except we weren't married yet.
Interesting about the 'feelings memory' Patrica. As a visual person I think that's where my focus lies. Perhaps your focus is in the realm of feelings?

Welcome, Brian. Yep, looks as if you will fit right in here. If things get boring, you are welcome to start a conversation on DDT or global warming...

Andre Jute wrote: "Now this rings a bell. "And this is my wife, uh—"

But I can turn up at some obscure junction of seven lanes in a forest in rural Slovakia, where I passed once at speed in a car thirty years ago, ..."

That's how it is for me. I have such selective memory I couldn't even explain to myself what drives it to come and go. I recall numbers especially well, but also can remember to the last detail some obscure conversation about lifetime habits of a particular ant found only in outer Mongolia...

Maybe it's something to do with being a writer, an odd way of looking at things, like that right brain, left brain business with artists and engineers in general. (I should be careful. Dakota is a a distinguished engineer from a family of famous engineers. And she's a good writer as well. But then the exception always proves the rule.)

There's nothing wrong with the expressive talents of engineers. That's how they get into engineering school. It is the precision that is hammered into them in their education that kills their non-technical writing. I was just fortunate to come from a cultured family where being an engineer was not everything in people's lives.

That's what I said: the exception proves the rule.

Maybe colleges should make some cultural subjects compulsory in the education of engineers, rather than trying to stuff more into their heads every year.

I have a disconcerting personality mix of technophile and creative artist. On the one hand I have a master’s in vegetation ecology, with specialization in heavy statistical analysis, whereas on the other hand I am a visual artist, writer and musician. Through into the mix that in my youth I was a drug-fiend, alcohol- swilling hedonistic hipster with a Weltanschauung that included a whole lot of totally off-the-wall mystical experiences. And now I work with databases with caffè latte as my drug of choice. Many diverse entities live under the roof of my house and they are not all friends. Never a dull moment in any case.

Did someone mention alcohol?

All I heard was "hedonistic."

Hmmm ... single word identifiers. Flash personalities.

Welcome.

Thanks, J. A. Been here two days and already feel at home.

Brian wrote: "Thanks, J. A. Been here two days and already feel at home."

Did anyone warn you that once you get in here, you can't get out?

Funny you should mention that; I did, in fact, think just that earlier this evening. But I’d rather spend my company with the damned than the mediocre. If I’m going to Hell, I want to be able to discuss it with someone who understands why.

I warned of typos - I just saw that I wrote 'Through' instead of 'Throw' on a post. I sometimes wonder if there is organic damage...

If God didn't want us to make typos he wouldn't have given keyboards so many keys.

Yeah, I think I am equally right-brained and left-brained. Does that make me balanced?

My dd2 called me a 'complexifier' the other day. When I told her I would 'own' that description she said it wasn't necessarily a complement. I shot her a look and said, well, duh! that's why I'm embracing it! I think she's too literal for me...

See? There's a typo. We all know God is a she.

Timothy Leary suggested the genderless annotation S/He. God can’t have gender. Gender implies sex, and who is God going to have sex with? Jerking off and creating humanity, fine. But other than a good wank, God is on hs/hr own ...

Sharon wrote: "Yeah, I think I am equally right-brained and left-brained. Does that make me balanced?

My dd2 called me a 'complexifier' the other day. When I told her I would 'own' that description she said it w..."

'Complexifier'! You have your work cut out for you. Great dialog; should grace a book.

Patricia wrote: "If God didn't want us to make typos he wouldn't have given keyboards so many keys."

:D

I'd say I don't believe in god, but saying it indicates there is a god, otherwise how can one not believe in him/her/it?

I'm an atheist. I'm a legal atheist. (Total Police massacre there.)

Claudine wrote: "I'm an atheist. I'm a legal atheist. (Total Police massacre there.)"

Hey, Claudine, check your messages.

Thanks!!!!

Claudine wrote: "Thanks!!!!"

My pleasure.

(This is probably sounding cryptic to everyone else. Claudine won a multi-book giveaway sponsored by Cookie's Mom and I needed her email address to send 'em to her.)

Congrats, Claudine!

Thanks, Brian. I also told her pretty much everyone was a 'fizer of one sort or another, and that most would not necessarily be considered a compliment by the person making the observation. Yeah, I suppose that's true, she agreed but I noticed she wasn't brave enough to ask what 'fizer I thought she might be, grin...

God became an 'it' for me a long time ago. After trying out euphemisms such as Spirit-God, Source, the Universe, I decided who the hell had the right to take away that great name, GOD, from me as if it were owned by anyone, and now again I pray (meditate, whatever one wants to call it) to GOD, who is not a who at all but the word does not seem to have an antonym.

I write about this kind of stuff in my books, which is why they languish, sigh...

I think this is actually rather interesting. He/she implies gender. A duh, Brian, right? All beings (well, higher beings) have a sexual gender. Male/Female, Yin/Yang. God is a higher being (indeed Supreme) , ergo, language-wise, God requires a personal pronoun when spoken of in the third-person. ‘It’ is for objects (third-person singular inanimate), not supreme beings. That leaves us with He/She. In the Judeo-Christian patriarchal society God became He, The Father. In other cultures God is She, The Mother. So what we really need in these pan-cultural postmodern times is a unique genderless personal pronoun reserved for God. Suggestions?

Volcano?

I believe that religious beliefs arose out of early man's need to explain his environment. One that he did not understand or comprehend. I read Religion Explained. It dovetails in very nicely with my anthropological belief on the origin of man's need to feed his soul.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78...

Volcano? :D I actally laughed out loud when I read that! And I work in an open office landscape. More fodder for my co-workers belief that I am not playing with a full deck. Thanks, I needed that!

The book sounds intersting. Might have to check it out.

It reads like a dry doctoral thesis but after the third full read through I was fascinated. I've been through the whole born again Christian to closet atheist cycle, something that started in my early 20s and escalated 13 years ago into the conclusions contained in this book. It is an interesting read, even for Christians and those who believe.

I tried Dawkins's books too but ended up throwing his books against the wall out of frustration. I find him almost arrogant in the extreme.

Brian wrote: "So what we really need in these pan-cultural postmodern times is a unique genderless personal pronoun reserved for God. Suggestions? "

Claudine wrote: "Volcano?"

I've been sitting here laughing aloud for five minutes now, and still.

It perfectly described the uncontrolled temper of the Judeo-Christian God, his sidekick Allah, and their multiple-personality contemporaries.

Fire and Brimstone Andre, Fire and Brimstone (no small letters, those words need to instill Fear).

I'm still going with God being a female non-existent whatever. Therefore, I suggest Volcana.

Claudine wrote: Volcano?

Claudine, you really aught not spew such LOL funny things when your friends are sitting down with a cuppa...

I believe you have mentioned that book before and I got the same response: Not available for sale in Canada. However, I suspect we are on the same page in many of our beliefs...

But if we must, I rather like the sound of Volcana.

This is still cracking me up, I don't know why.

What about Vulvacano? Kinda says it all ...

Brian wrote: "This is still cracking me up, I don't know why.

What about Vulvacano? Kinda says it all ..."

I could live with that, since Gaia is taken.

Sharon, interesting that its not available in Canada. I got frustrated as it wasn't available here so I ordered a print copy. I could post it to you if you want to read it.

We should have a warning under our group description... The members are not liable for damage caused by spewing of liquids in laughing fit.

'We should have a warning under our group description... The members are not liable for damage caused by spewing of liquids in laughing fit.'

Copy that.
- B

Vulvacano

On my way out to get that tattoo right now...

That could be awful painful Patricia!

Brian, thanks for the offer. However, I don't read dead tree books anymore. I may look it up at my local library when I get back, but to be honest it irks me when publishers can so easily pub all over the world on Kindle at the touch of a button and still choose to exclude some countries. I get that there are contracts and rights involved but authors should be enough on the ball to know by now they can publish themselves to ereaders and get that extra mileage.

Especially authors who have a message to deliver!