I think it would be an honor to be compared to a frog. At least their assholes are water-tight.
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Oh, dear. Nobody told you? Uh, well, we don’t have any fences around here. We’re a bunch of free-range heathen assholes.
Don’t get offended by Cog, to me he’s much like that math teacher you had who made you write out your entire equation. He doesn’t care you got the right answer, he wants to know you arrive there by the proper formulation. He’s exacting, and precise to a fault at times.
I find this place much like my art courses in college. I was taking figure drawing classes with people in other majors outside of art. At the end of each week you put your work up on the wall and let everyone critique your work. That meant listening equally and respecting each person’s criticism without taking offense. It’s daunting at first, a piece I would spend close to 40 hours on, and then listen to a guy majoring in sports therapy tell me I’m foreshortening a figure wrong.
Well regardless of that guys level of artistry or ability. I took what he said and ended up focusing on foreshortening and with a level of irritation knit picking my own work. So that now nameless faceless amorphous human directed my progression in a positive manner. Even if I was completely baffled and questioned his logic and reasoning at the time. In other words I just started seeing everything as a teachable moment. It certainly wasn’t enjoyable or made sense at the time. Years later now it developed value, I see what that class was actually doing, it wasn’t just teaching me figure drawing. It was teaching how to deal with conflicting points of view, accepting and learning from outside perspective, and how to constructively deal with criticism we agree with and disagree with. I now try to treat them as equally valuable, and use reasoning skills to analyze the reasoning behind criticism and how best to use it.
Would me lecturing my critic back and dismissing him in that situation change how the figure I drew wasn’t foreshortening accurately enough for him? No, so I take that criticism and just politely disagree now. I moved on and just kept it in my mind, and it certainly still motivates me today. Just I use it constructively now instead of wielding it with anger and irritation to prove that one person wrong.
I will say there is a great deal of humor here, but when you have no eternal paradise to live for. We revel in only living once. So I say throw some the formality and self policing out the window. It’s us enjoying life, since there is no second time around. Stumble through it and enjoy.
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Well, dang, Satan… Pretty nice spiel you gave there. And all this time I was thinking you were just some greasy dullard wrench-turner. (I would have said “grease monkey”, but I didn’t want to risk feeding Cog’s ego.) Anyway, I must say I’m impressed… (Despite the fact you couldn’t keep a secret about my metric nuts and bolts… Asshole.)
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Who said I wasn’t? I’m not trying to get promoted so keep that to yourself if you don’t think that!
P.S. it’s ok I prefer metric, standard is terrible.
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During my aircraft engine training we learned on the Canadiar T-33. It was a US designed airframe, with a British engine. And one had to have a full set of tools. Not only Imperial and metric, but also Standard Whitworth.
Both are 5/8th. The right is Imperial (measured across the nut), the left is Standard Whitworth (measured across the bolt).
Oh sorry, I meant imperial. Us dumb hicks in the states think everything we use is “standard”.
It blows my mind how awful imperial is when it comes to weights. Lbs and ounces. Liquids in gallons and quarts. It all seems foreign to me.
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Yeah when I first encountered metric bolts and nuts many years ago, I thought wtf? Why are we using fractional sizes based on…an inch?
Don’t forget 5,280 feet to a mile.
I grew up in Imperial, but Canada went metric, to great wailing and gnashing of teeth. So I’m fluently bi-measurment. But I created a quick conversion guide for most situations. All are approximate, but 100 km=60 miles, 68F=20C and 86F=30C. I like how just switching the 6 and 8 makes it easy to remember.
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I don’t see any pomposity or sarcasm. I was pretty fucking blunt. Any moron can survive. All you gotta do is eat, sleep, and pee. “Here I am.” You consider that surviving? I told you the bar was set way too low. No one celebrates the man who comes from the slums and survives. They celebrate the man who comes from the slums and becomes president. “Thriving” is the goal, not surviving. All you have to do to survive is wake up each morning and breath, which, by the way, seems what you have done? (Just judging from the posts.) “I’m Here” Really? That’s what you have?
Okay, let’s play. Now that you are here. What’s next. What are you doing and where are you going. What’s going to make shit better one hour from now? What one thing can you do, right this moment that is going to alter your world and push you towards thriving and get you off your surviving butt?
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Or… You are completely ignorant of the way you present yourself to people. You are a survivor like I am a 300-pound, big-titted prostitute with one eye and a missing leg. You need to dump a whole lot of shit before you can claim survival.
Wait… You mean to tell me those pics in your profile on the Meet-Some-Meat dating site are photoshopped? You phony bastard!
That’s just my online personality. I am really short, fat, bald, an very much Golum like, but I wear designer clothes, whenever I can find them.
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My precious…oooh him likes his precious…
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What you failed to understand, partly my fault , is I’m not going to respond to your childish taunts.
My bad because many thought I was leaving the Republic, this was never my intent, some funny people here, and some smart people. But I am a well mannered half smart old boy, life is too short and sweet to suckle your mastitis milk.
Peddle your brand of humor on someone who would give a damn about your opinion or humor. ( ? no one knows,)
Rat spit is right in your wheelhouse sounds like he has asked for a conformation of his math skills. In case your too self absorbed to pick up on his signals.
Now I’m done with you Cog, just for double clarity.
You sure do reference Ratty a whole bunch. You two dating or something? (You don’t have to answer that if it’s too personal.) Last time I checked, though, Ratty is pretty good at defending himself. Plus, he knows we love him oodles-n-oodles here. Anyway, just curious. Oh, by the way, while most of us do have an interest in math and such, there are only a couple of folks here who are “fluent” enough with that level of mathematics that could help Ratty with his equations. Just sayin’…
Wow… You say that as if Cog could give a shit. “Oh, NO! How will Cog ever recover?!?” And just when I thought you were starting to learn something. Oh, well… (chuckle)…
Edit to add: However, if this does happen to upset Cog and send him off to his room to pout, be advised that I’m blaming YOU if he takes all the cookies. Fair warning.
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Mark, after a period of time people gather into cliques. That is basic human interaction.
Malice is not intended, nor are others kept out of the conversation or treated with disdain. But from an external viewpoint, until one begins to understand the interactions and personalities, it can be weird but amazing.
All I can suggest is that you give them a chance, they will reciprocate.
Hey! Are you some sort of perv? My Momma always taught me it’s rude to reciprocate in front of others! I only do that sort of thing in private. 
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