Beautiful post in "Greatest"

[Celebration]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5070767&mesg_id=5070767

Very nice. Love the pictures that illustrates the points. No way anyone can ruin this post. It's just too visually beautiful.

Love the title, too, LOL.

[Kind of Blue]

1. Thanks, Celebration!

Omega minimo really tries to bring beauty and wonder to GD. I hope her latest post will appreciated for that this time.

[Celebration]

2. oh my

They are at it again, it seems, or trying. It would be nice if everyone here could add a sentiment and picture, and refuse to be drawn into a fight.

[Kind of Blue]

3. Good idea! Here goes.

[kentauros]

4. I know confrontation seems to be second-nature to many here

but I sometimes wonder if attempting to counter those that come out of the woodwork against such threads are really worth countering? They aren't going to change their minds when the subject is presented to them, in whatever form. They have to make up their own minds in their own sweet time, or they will be forever confrontational like this.

And I do understand trying to put some Love into GD, in whatever form. Just don't be surprised when the forever-grumpy try to ruin it.

I remember one atheist that came over to this corner of DU genuinely interested in what we believed in and not trying to be judgmental. I vaguely remember his nick as having something to do with AZ. I've known a handful of atheists like that and they are a rare breed for what's online. They are also generally shunned by the "rational" crowd, too, probably because they don't question everything that's not scientifically-based. The clique that always shows up for these threads is just that. Do we really need to encourage them all the more?

addition: I do find that my post here can be judgmental, too, and I think we all do that to some extent. I just wonder if perhaps not countering them would help us (or just me) lose the judgment of their attitudes, however seemingly justified. And I'm not sure putting them on Ignore is the best thing to do, either...

[Kind of Blue]

5. For me, it's not about countering them

or changing their opinion. It's more about lending support to a fellow kindred under attack, Just to show that she/he is not alone.

[kentauros]

7. And I agree with that

:)

I sometimes do the same, though with humor, just to try and defuse the nastiness.

[Kind of Blue]

9. Gosh, it seems to never work :(

It's as if the posts of beauty and the infinite slaps their mother or kills a beloved pet. It's such a kick in the head for them and always catches me by surprise. I guess when it stops surprising me so much I'll stop trying to lend support. But I'm learning :)

[kentauros]

13. I think what really pushes their buttons are not so much the photos

as it is the quotes. Post the very same photos without any quotes (or without "woowoo" quotes) and you have a very different thread, assuming it doesn't sink ;)

Who "invented" the woo-woo term anyway? I really dislike it.

[Celebration]

14. Should have left off the woo woo

Although I actually embrace it. Quotations could also be from works of literature--Thoreau, Emerson, even Gibran, etc.

[kentauros]

16. Yes, literature works to a point.

But if you quote even a highly respected literary giant when they are talking about Spirit, you're just pushing their buttons again, and they won't see the forest for the trees.

To me, the term woo-woo sounds really silly, and though it's good to have silliness in your life, I see the term as working against us to no end, no matter how much we embrace it or "make it our own" ;)

[Kind of Blue]

18. Funny, but someone mentioned

the term as being in a Mel Brooks movie, actually meaning vagina. I don't know how it became synonymous with Spirit.

[kentauros]

21. I saw that post

and laughed inwardly as I remember that part in the movie High Anxiety (it's a parody of the most well-known Hitchcock movies.) :)

Maybe wikipedia knows...

[Celebration]

6. Not good to take them on, for the most part

I just like an excuse to post beautiful thoughts and pictures. It got locked right after I posted a picture I took at Byodo in Temple in Oahu. So, I just posted the same one in the photography group, without the Buddhist saying.

I'm just a picture/art/photography nut, and somewhat musical, and not particularly verbal. My posts are usually short and non poetic, but I tend to think in pictures. I take this as another opportunity to post my picture of the Buddha.

[kentauros]

8. It's a beautiful picture of the Buddha

:D

I don't get to travel so no opportunities to see such things, much less photograph them. I'm glad you're able to do so and share your experiences :D

I also don't really understand the reason for the locking, though. It is "general discussion" right? Why can't mildly spiritual and mostly loving posts be represented there, too? Unless the mods are thinking more to "keep the peace" since the cliques won't allow that kind of topic due to their reactions...

[Kind of Blue]

10. I just hope they don't tombstone her, Kentauros,

for the sake of peace.
:thumbsup: Celebration, thanks for the Buddha. He is beautiful.

[kentauros]

11. That's true as I forgot about that part.

I've never had to use the "alert" function, but would guess the overly-rational use it all the time. In that case, I would suggest she post with caution from now on. Continue to post beautiful images, maybe some of the quotes from the heroes of the rational, such as Sagan, Dawkins and Einstein and none of the rest. I love the photos at the site "Astronomy Picture of the Day" and I bet many of them visit it, too, though for different perceptions of beauty.

In case you don't know the site, here's the link: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod

Is there any way of appealing to the mods on an issue like this?

[Kind of Blue]

17. Thanks for link!

I've got Google Earth as well but never venture outside of the Hubble site.

[kentauros]

22. You're welcome! :)

I forget about the Hubble site, but would guess APOD covers them as well.

NASA has also recently (sometime last year) made their Apollo images available to the public. As in the entire library! :o

I may only have that link at home, but will post it if I find it before then.

[I Have A Dream]

19. I can't imagine that they'd tombstone her over something like that.

I've seem people repeatedly do much worse things and stay around for years.

:hug:

[Celebration]

12. I guess she started the thread yesterday

And they made those links.

If you like to vicariously vacation, I would recommend Google Earth. People post their pictures there, and some are really incredible.

And/or you can also go into www.panoramio.com and do searches of places and key words. Panoramio feeds into Google Earth. They feature great places from all over the world, places I could never hope to visit.

[kentauros]

15. Well, I will be going to New Zealand this year

so I'll take some pics (depending on what my gf and I are doing most of the time ;))

I also work as a pipeline mapper, so Google Earth is one of many imaging tools I use here. There's also NASA World Wind and Microsoft Virtual Earth. World Wind has USGS topo map layer and Virtual Earth has the "bird's eye view" function :D

Here's another cool global image site you'll like: http://www.gigapxl.org
I posted the link to the Astronomy Picture of the Day somewhere in this thread, too.

I'll look at Panoramio in a while here. I know I've used it in Google Earth, too :)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

26. I think the term is

do not throw pearls before swine.

I still recall one time when I mentioned my doctor and the Foundation in GD or Health (can't recall which) and was met with great hostility, including one DUer who promised me he would write the state medical board to get Doc's license revoked! That didn't happen, but it did bring home to me that there are people here who not only do not understand, but who would do whatever they can to silence ideas and concepts that they don't understand. A really sad situation, but that is why I watch what I post in GD, and feel only comfortable posting a lot of important things only here.

[kentauros]

20. I seem to have started quite the conversation here, too

:P

By my own nature, I would love to counter each and every one of them, but my "intelligence" is not so great in the sciences or literature, and resides motly in art and graphics. Even in art, I had to deal with snobbish instructors ("Oh, that's just illustration. That's not art") and there's really no counter for that. They've defined it in their mind with indelible braincells and it may just take more than a figurative boot to the head to dislodge anything ;)

[Kind of Blue]

23. HA! See what you get for playing nice!

Had the same problem with art instructors. Found cleverer(?) students could tell what a teacher liked and gravitated to that style, use to burn me up :mad: But I could never manipulate the brush that way. Anyway, I remember a painting class with a student the teacher fawned over. IMHO, she couldn't paint but the teacher loved her fluid impressionistic style and did everything she could for the girl who wanted an internship in Italy. I was so sad but got over it. About a semester later, I met a crazy-fun lost French lady on the subway in D.C., promoting French artists in the states. Well, long story short, after seeing my stuff, she invited me to study with her artist husband for the summer. It turned out to be summer after summer. I remember running into the particular art instructor who actually said going to France would do me no good because I had no creativity. HA! :rofl: :rofl: I nicely told her where to stuff it. That's when I found out that everything is politics in one way or another, except for Spirit, of course. :)

[kentauros]

24. Or maybe Life is politics

and we can't get away from it because it's what all humans gravitate to naturally ;)

My art background is graphic arts, so my painting skills are somewhat lacking. I always did enjoy watercolor, however, even digital painting, like the following from Corel Painter:


(the image seems washed out on this monitor; it doesn't look that light normally.)

I don't paint much any more; now I write more than any other endeavor. It's great how your life took you to further your art training. Have you done any gallery showings? :)

[Kind of Blue]

28. Oh, I envy you who are proficient on the computer

with digital art. Graphics is still art to me. My husband works in the printing industry so, of course, my appreciation for graphics has grown.
Gallery openings? Yes, once upon a time before an NDE and I became a cavewoman. Had a few single but mostly group shows but a lot of people around is overwhelming for me now a-days. But am slowly working on a new website. I'll pem you my old site. Thanks for asking :)
I'd love to know what you write about.

[kentauros]

29. Digital art isn't so hard with the right tools.

Although that "painting" was done with a mouse, I wouldn't do it that way today. I use a mouse at work for drafting (AutoCAD) because it's made for that tool. At home, as for the last 8 years now, I use a Wacom tablet, upgraded in recent years to a 6x8 size. Since you use a stylus just like a pen, pencil or brush, you can mimic exactly what it takes to paint and draw. Sit it in your lap and work to your heart's content :D

I think I have spent more time making photomanipulations than digital paintings, though, and mostly centaurs ;)

Now, you ask about what I write. Although I PM-ed you about that, I forgot you had asked me that here instead of there

So here's that part of the PM for all the rest here.

As far as my writing goes, I have quite a lot that I am still in the process of getting completed and I actually write on it almost every day. However, I am kind of a perfectionist toward the quality of it, so I can spend at least as long editing it as it took to write it! lol

I posted a thread in the Writing group that has links to three of my stories, one being fanfic and the other two inspired by the same, but stand-alone stories other than theme. Here's the link to that thread and you can go from there :)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=216x5480

I think the chapters I've been writing since I wrote those are of a better quality and I attribute that to the summer of 2005 when I got the brainstorm to inject some form of Spirit into my plots. I started work on a "book" at the time and saw how the quality went way up. There are also passages that when I re-read them, they do not "read" like my style, as if I was channeling the story. I probably was and still am in some instances.

Okay, that's sufficiently off-topic :P
For my next trick

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

25. I found it very interesting

because it showcased the darkness and the light. I find it odd that a place that is for progressives is home for so many who have such closed minds. It serves as a reminder to myself to try and see things from another's point of view, and to forgive them their short sightedness.

[Why Syzygy]

27. I think it's sad, too.

If those sorts have anything important to say, no one will hear them due to their delivery methods.
I'm interested in hearing from several divergent sources. IMO all information should be up for debate. However, in behaving disruptively, some assure that no one's 'side' is aired. It is an affront to the freedom of ideas that one expects in mature company. From what I've seen, there are taunters on both sides of any issue. But, thankfully compared to the majority of DU, they seem to be a small vocal minority. That's all it takes. See November 4, 2000 for style reference.