bluedreams

1. What is your favorite color? mild shades of blue2. Where were you born? Fairfax Virginia 3. Did you serve a mission and if so where? I will be in a little over 2 weeks. Philidelphia Pennsylvania mission....so don't mind my absense 4. Married or single? single 5. What is your favorite food? spanikopita...but I'll settle for other spinach and cheese delights 6. What is your favorite movie?right now, Pandora. But I like tons of movies 7. Who is your favorite band? I don't have one. Right now I'm liking gnarls barkley and regina skeeter. It'll pass 8. Do you have children? not real ones. I have a couple of people who call me mom 9. Who is your favorite author? Mmm, Robin McKinnley and Isabel Allende 10. What is your hobby?Art, dancing, and some writing 11. What is your idea of the perfect vacation?Hawaii with a guy I like swimming in the ocean, hiking a ton, and enjoying its natural beauty 12. What is your favorite city? Washington DC 13. What is your favorite sports team?I don't like watching team oriented sports. By default I guess BYU 14. What kind of car do you drive? I don't drive 15. What was the first car you owned? I don't own a car 16. What calling do you hold in church? Right now visiting teacher. In two weeks missionary 17. If you could travel anywhere in the world that you have not been to before, where would it be? it's a toss up between England, NYC, and Nigeria 18. What is your favorite tv show? Lost, Chuck, Fringe, Heroes Explorer, taboo (both are on National Geographic channel), All of the science channels in general.. 19. What is your current favorite restaurant? Suma Vegi (it's a small resturant that serve solely vegetarian food) and Maestros (a gelato shop)....I don't eat out much cuz I'm poor 20. What event in your life gave you the biggest rush? What type of a rush? Spiritually: becoming converted. Physically: climbing a mountain by myself. socially: Skinny dipping with my cuz. Relationship-wise: This kiss by the guy i mentioned earlier (wasn't in HI though). Educationally: discovering my minor. artistically: the moment I know a very good painting is finished. Dancing: having an amazing latin dance partner Etc. I live a rush filled life and I wouldn't have it any other way. With luv, BD

e. none of the above. If someone here posts it or it comes along my path later down the road then I'd probably click it to see what it was. But I wouldn't go out of my way to watch or avoid it and i don't watch SNL in full ever, just popular clips. With luv, BD

Lol...makes you feel better I felt the same way with titanic. I was trying really hard not to snicker at the girl saying "Jack...Jack" over and over again as you watched him sink into the deep. I kept thinking that's not what I would be doing if there was a corpsicle stuck to my floatation device, short-term love affair aside. Moron should have found his own piece of floating trash to sit on anyway's. With luv, BD

I know this is bad, but I just can't stop laughing...Post Avatar Depression....priceless. Seriously though, I was a little sad that there wasn't some real Pandora floating about so that I could become a blue person that's 10 ft tall. It was similar to my sadness when I realized I'd finish a good read and there was no sequel to the book. They must have one terribly mundane life to want to become suicidal over it. (I'm one sick person, I just keep chuckling....imagining someone in a counselors chair talking about missing the world of pandora...Oh gosh I'm now definitely sure therapy is not my calling) With luv, BD

I'm expecting to be able to leech off my parent's perfectly good health insurance for a few more good years while I'm single. I'm perfectly content mooching off of them and not thinking much about premium rates and health coverage. I'm also expecting for this issue to come up yet again in my lifetime. We're upgrading health care from a bandaid to gauze and alcohol when really what's needed is some good ol' stiches and antibiotics. With luv, BD

Before I say anything, I've gotta say that I'm a visual junkie. As I told my one friend, I don't see the point of spending money at the big screen unless there's things getting blown up or amazing special effects. I'm the type that found herself grinning ear-to-ear in 2012 where almost all humanity is wiped off the face of the earth because the graphics were wonderful. So of course Avatar rocked my socks right off. Take it from someone who absolutely loves special effects, this movie is astounding on that level. In its genre there is nothing to compare it to. 3D has usually disappointed me, but this movie was like looking into your own box of real people. My brother at one point involuntarily reached out to touch it because it seemed so real. Even if you exclude the 3D its still amazing computer animation that I still can't think of something that really compares to it. But in the end, any movie that makes me wish to be 10 ft tall and blue (please ignore my own avatar when reading this) automatically gets my respect. The story line is not all that original though. It's sort of like Dances with Wolves in plot line. It was a little uncomfortable taking my (much) younger bros to the movie, but it never got to a point where I was about to mumble cover your eyes to the 10-11 year old sitting next to me. A kid above 8 (youngest with us was 9), IMO would be just fine and they all loved the movie to death. I still want to go see it again in the movie theatre. REALLY badly. This is a first for me on that note. But honestly, that movie was made for the big screen. Nothing else will do it the same justice. So to anyone thinking about a movie to go to this is definitely the movie to see. I can't think of a better movie out at the moment. Visually speaking, I can't think of a better movie out in the last decade. With luv, BD

I think the parents had the right to do it, though their use of equipment is definitely dubious at best. Though I don't think they were the smartest at going about it I don't think they necessarily deserve to have the book thrown at them like they apparently are. The charges do seem a little much. Meh, doesn't seem all that bad in comparison with things like circumsicion. Besides babies react differently to pain. When I got my immunizations at 5 (not exactly a baby, but still) you would have thought I was going in for a branding. 4 Nurses had to hold me down as well as my mother. I got my ears pierced way later in life (around 18). Pain wise ear piercings are far better. (I didn't want to add another post....but I thought I should add that I don't have much of anything against circumsicion. Makes me squirm a little at the idea, but next to that there's nothing really wrong or right about it to me. I don't want it to become a circumsicion thread, simply pointing out that pain isn't necessarily the best indicator of what family decisions should be made) With luv, BD

Black like me's a great book. I loved reading it and was surprised at just how much it can still apply to society today. Hmm....honestly never think about the author's sex when picking a book....or the author's name for that matter. If I like the book then I take note of the author's name so that I can find more of the same. I pay more attention to the protaganist's sex than anything. I have a bias towards female protaganists. But this is a freelance writer/blogger. The writing's mostly not fiction and more business oriented. Uhm....sort of. Googled it quickly and it's called the pound cake speech. It's Cosby's famous rant about lower-income AA families in america. The name part wasn't really about being detrimental to success though, here's that part of the speech: If you want to find the full speech, just google pound cake speech and you'll find it. With luv, BD

I hope you don't mind me jumping in. But I don't think nudity should elicit no response....or similar to looking at a bottle of Coppetone. There shouldn't be a day that that should happen. Human form is beautiful and that beauty should be appreciated. Nudity in art, especially among the best art often times has a very poignant message on humanity, culture, and sexuality (at times). I don't think that it shouldn't elicit responce but that its primary responce be that message and not one's own libido. Actually, in the art world, that hasn't been too far off. When society has taken a more extreme twist where nudity = porn (or at least inappropriate to the more delicate class' senses) art was censored or entirely destroyed. It was a method of instilling conformity and eliminating oppsing viewpoints in the cultural sense. With luv, BD

Thought I'd answer the OP first before taking a closer look at the rest of the posts, so sorry if this has been repeated. To start I am an artist (or at least I do art) though not one professionally nor academically. But its something I love dearly, have very strong opinions about, and know a little bit about in the BYU schools (a little, not a lot since I'm not a major or minor in art). Nudity in art is a-okay in my book.....and is for most artists that I know. For me personally, there is nudity that pushes on the edge of pornographic/tactless and then the rest. The vast majority of nude paintings, IMHO, are in the rest category....even many a painting that have an actual sexual theme to it. Most artists will need to learn the human form and how to paint it at some point in their lives. I, personally, have never done a full nude, but am not closed to doing so and probably will one day...what stops me is that I'm usually in an apartment with roommates who may or may not enjoy the idea of a nude painting coming to life in their living room. Though LDS artists are generally a little more liberal leaning when it comes to things like nudity, the general LDS population is not. Thus paintings of a less controversial nature are usually made. The reason I don't mind nudity is simply because nakedness does not equal sex to me. It can symbolize sexuality (among many other things) but not necessarily having sex. The naked form, in and of itself is not porno. How it is depicted, IMO, is key. I've seen paintings that made me uncomfortable where the models were fully (or nearly) clothed and I've seen paintings that I felt entirely comfortable looking at that were entirely in the buff. There is no set place that is the bench mark of okay and not. It is up to the observer. As for the church itself I don't think there is any set standard. Of course if you were going to go with mainstream lds art, you'd almost assume it was inappropriate to have the figure covered in anything but loose draping clothes that leave little skin below the head with very few exceptions;). My motto, instead, is simply to depict with good taste and discretion. Nowadays figure drawing classes entail models that are either in binkinis for the females and speedos for the males. And (much to the grumbling of a number of my art friends) I heard they were limiting the figure drawing classes to a higher level course to increase the average age of the student. Seemed asinine to me at the time, but after thinking about an experience in a totally unrelated class where I was describing the first part of reproduction and students started giggling at the mention of sperm.....I could see why it might be done. As a general rule church schools error on the side of caution and stick with more conservative depictions of art. In part because a number of students in the classes would not want it. In part because the art is then later depicted in the public halls/gallaries where other students that are not always artists will see it and are even more likely to not want it. In part because the larger public and student body who may catch wind of controversy would almost certainly raise their pens and voices in protest. So BYU (not sure about the other schools) has figure drawing classes with people in bikinis/speedos and if the students want to do full nudes to beef up their portfolio they are welcome to take off-campus (and non-school related) classes that are nearby. With luv, BD

I found this article today on AOL today and thought I'd share. For those who clicked out for curiosity's sake thanks to the odd title, let me lower your expectations from the start. It's not about someone who's trangendered. Rather it's about a female writer who's picked up a male pseudonym as an online writer and found far better success doing so. What's in a Name Guess i should count my lucky stars that my real name happens to be associated more with (old) men than with (still old) women. On a more serious note, I found this a pretty interesting real-life example of something that I've only seen mentioned in studies about name-based discrimination. With luv, BD

So wait....there's actually consequences to massive debt when you're a country??? I thought it was just a pretty number that people like to flash...when it got bad countries just had a magical reset button that lowered it or just sold it off to other countries. You know, like trading baseball cards or something...guess greece just got stuck with all the bad baseball players But seriously, I didn't realise countries actually could. I know there are problems with LDC's with debt from loans to organizations like the IMF....but thats about the extent of my knowledge on said things. With luv, BD

I often times think of us as like those wise and learned people in the BOM. In the last 2 centuries or so, we've grown quite a bit in knowledge, cultural awareness, historical learning, etc. Learning, in many ways, has exploded all over the place. But we've also foolishly assume that by knowing more and more about the world on its own would act as a buffer to human folly. I actually think it will be best reached in Satan's favorite tactic of chaos. Where the world will grow more strongly fractures and in disarray based on lines of ethnicity, faith, philosophies, etc...forgetting the most fundamental laws of God: to follow Him first and foremost and love our neighbors as ourselves. Yes....I'd completely agree. I sometimes feel that we already do that to a great extent. With luv, BD

I think religion is just another way to facilitate extreme us-them mentalities. It's very effective mind you, but the same effects can be done just as effectively without it. All that's needed is to believe that the out-group is severely less than compared to any other group...insomuch that they are considered a pest/parasite severely detrimental to society. When a group begins to be seen as notsomuch human and later on as a threat it becomes far easier to commit horrendous atrocities to them. Religion can be utilized to unite across borders, but religion is just as fracticious as ethnic groups and country borders. It's closer to governing philosophies, like democracy, in its ability to unite. For example, there are many differing democratic base governments in the world, but because they adhere to a western philosophy of government does not mean that the french version will be the same as the American or the american to the Haitian. The same can be said about virtually any religion that exists today. What can unite faith is when there is a pressure to ignore differences and rely more heavily on similarities. With luv, BD

It's obama's new call signal to tell people he's coming. Batman had that batlight Christ had a star Obama now has a swirly doodad. All the cool guys were getting it, it just seemed proper. Not presumptuous at all. (okay, back to my corner....I just couldn't help myself) With luv, BD

If faith is put in the same bucket as belief....then yes, I think it's entirely possible to have faith but not be faithful. The may believe it is true, even hope that it is, but then have this belief have little effect on their actual lives. It is, to me, a shallow faith. One that scratches the surface but hasn't found rooting. But it's still a faith, of sorts. With luv, BD

I don't think the guy has depression. I mean he might, but simply one symptom is not enough to place in consideration for having depression. If that one thing is coupled with other problems like lack of interest, other negative emotions/thoughts, or physical symptoms like weight fluctuation, problems eating, sleeping, or even things like blackouts and dizzyness for an extended period of time (like over a month or 2) then that may be the problem. And even if he does, anti-depressants aren't always the answer either. When the depression is manageable, it can even be better to simply learn techniques to help maintain the depression. That said, counselors aren't bad to have work out negative emotions. Had one for a little while when I was at my worse with issues of worrying and stress (that inadequacy was definitely apart of). It's not a bad idea, especially if it seriously becomes very detrimental to ones quality of living. With luv, BD

eeyup, for about a year now. Most of it was probably due to the fact that I was slowly working my way to going on a mission. Satan's one mean fellow. I don't think one can prevent it entirely. But the worse of it was abated when I started taking actions to prepare for a mission more seriously (or whatever else one feel inadequate for). For that, PS' advice fit perfectly. The other points would come when I was about to make a decision or step that brought me irrevocably closer to my goal. At these points there was nothing i could litterally do to completely shut those thoughts entirely out. For those moments I prayed, remembered that even if I didn't think I could do it God did, and walked with faith. When the deed was done or I'd finally made the step, the Spirit would give me the assurance yet again that I was on the right path. Short answer: When you're bogged down, find time to be with God. When you feel like you can't do something (especially something that you know God desires you to do), keep going...He'll show you that you can. With luv, BD

Very good observation. I was personally surprised by just how many people here say that the online world is the one they feel they can more freely express themselves. That's really interesting. I sometimes feel really restricted online, like only half of my personality and views can come fully out through the online world. I know i laughed on this end. With luv, BD

Get the person you're trying to have a conversation with talking. Ask some questions, que in on points that seem most interesting, ask more questions and throw in some commentary that gives you connection to the person. Listen to their answers. Repeat. For body language, focus on them, but don't make too much eye contact or excessively long stares....that's creepy. Smile with your eyes (ie. genuine smiles). Do not talk constantly about yourself and give leeway for others to get a word in if you are the more talkative of the two. Dress well, look presentable, have confidence enough to initiate dialogue. When conversing with people who might have a very different cultural norm, observe what others do and follow suit. When in rome is definitely a must. With luv, BD

Thanks.....but what is enish-go-on-dosh??? Oh wait, I think I figured it out (thank you google). Now the question that I have is when was the last time you went there? With luv, BD

I am far, far more sarcastic and blunt offline than I am on. Especially with my closest friends. I love irony, so you might find me chuckling a lot randomly in real life because i find certain comments or actions around me ironic. Online that isn't shown at all. In fact I feel like I lack most of my sense of humor when it comes to online encounters. I speak better than I write as well. For that reason, while in discussions in a class or group in real life, I'm more likely to speak up and say something. More artsy, more weird, more socially consciencious, and a little more social period. I also have a face and body that move while I speak. Hmm....next to that, I have no clue. I'm not sure what people see me as online to begin with. I know in one place I post, a lady thought my avatar (which is usually a blue mouth) was a little creepy. I've never met anyone in real life who would describe my actual image as creepy....quite the opposite really. With luv, BD

Is this dishonesty, or is it something else?What is the appropriate response to this?Mmmkay As a cardinal rule when it comes to boards (and a perpetual optimist as it is), I assume the best out of someone unless very strongly proven otherwise. If he gives this website than I assume that he honestly thinks it’s not offensive. What he thinks and how others view it can be very different without either party being dishonest. I can’t think of a time I’ve had a discussion with someone like this, but if there’s something specific he wants to discuss about on the site, I’ll discuss and tell him my POV on it. He can take it or leave it as he will. Again, I assume that he actually believes that his scriptures prove the evils of someone’s beliefs. If I’m interested I will then go about and show him that his way is not the only way to read the text. He can then take it as he will. If he continues to argue the same point, I assume he’s a very stubborn person who cannot see a different view point nor is willing to reasonable discuss different views. At that point I usually quietly step out. It’s not worth the time or effort to go in unending circles. Not dishonest and I’d probably assume both members are simply wrong in their approach. The first is taking the wrong approach to give his point that history and the troubles that it’s brought still have a very real effect on the group/race today. The other is also taking the wrong approach in stating that this does not excuse all of the problems within said group/race that are currently present. Both, IMHO, are correct to some degree. Both just happen to be very bad at communicating it. So to me the something else is miscommunication. Not dishonest, something else. I try to see it possibly from the other’s shoes when in this type of situation (though, I can’t honestly think of a time someone has called me a meanie). Person X probably thinks that her answers were enough to answer Y, even if just implicitly. Y probably thinks that his points were relatively distinctive and deserve more individual attention. X probably feels to respond would be redundant and that Y is badgering. Y probably thinks he’s being reasonable because he feels that he still hasn’t received an answer in full. So I wouldn’t call it dishonest, I’d call it poor communication. Possibly dishonest. I would label him unwilling to communicate, so I wouldn’t try to communicate back. If he doesn’t want to hear, he never will. I think the only one that I’d feel comfortable with the label of dishonest is the last one (though there’s better words to describe Z). Either way, I learned pretty quickly not to become to irritated by those posting. And I’ve debated/read some very crazy stuff. I have three cardinal rules when discussing: - assume the best until absolutely proven otherwise - try to understand the person/individuals one’s trying to have a discussion with - always maintain ones cool….try not to show too much irritation, even if the words seem nigh asinine to you When I honestly feel I can’t maintain one of these I simply take my self out of interaction with the member as much as possible. Just me thoughts With luv, BD

Real all the way. Once we did a fake tree when my mom got married in winter and had bought a number of fake trees as decoration....just seemed like the right thing to do. But to set it up was more work than the ugly plastic thing was worth and the real tree is tradition. We all go out, I pick the tree (I have a good eye for it), we all work to set the dang thing up then we all enjoy the lovely smell and mess that it brings. Later on we hack up what we can and use it as fire wood. It's genuine family bonding time. I would be sad to come home only to find out they've made the transition to fake. It'd just be a shame. I assume I'll try and keep up the tradition, but who knows how that'll work out. With luv, BD

I thought it was a pretty good speech....unfortunately I wasn't all up for politics last night and fell asleep nearer the end of the first half. I haven't been following the coverage on the afghanistan front as much as I could....but it didn't seem that bad to my not so educated self. Feasible with possible holes in the plan, but not large gaping ones that I could see possibly sucker punching us later on. With luv, BD