Definitely. Animals are always honest and true to themselves.
If you "trust" a tiger not to eat you - that's not trust - that's stupidity. A tiger is a tiger, and behaves like a tiger - which means it kills to eat. If you misunderstand its nature - that's not the tiger's fault.
You can trust the tiger to behave like a tiger. You can't trust a human to behave in a civilised, human or humane way - they might, they might not, they might under certain circumstances, or they might if they feel they get a good deal out of it. The human will very likely be second guessing you - the animal won't be.
First thing is to work out what triggers the bad attitude, then offer him/her a better deal. If the bad attitude is because of fear, I narrow it down to whether it is fear of pain (convince horse it's not going to be hurt) or fear of the surroundings (convince it that I understand the fear and can offer leadership/security. For horses, leadership and security are much the same thing). If the bad attitude is because the horse doesn't have confidence in the people around it as reliable leaders, I show it that I can offer leadership (and therefore security) in terms it understands. Then comes the difficult bit - when I have to teach the owner to do the same! ;-)
I think the problem is sorting out the phishers from the men/women. Yes, there are real people here - I'm one, you're one - and I've met a couple of them, and they were very nice, it just didn't click. However, there are LOADS of phishers - pretty easy to spot. They want you to e-mail them, not reply on site. The mail they send is very general and is titled (in my case) Hello dear, hello pretty - or something equally banal and ridiculous. There are then a couple of sentences (often in broken or bad English) about how gorgeous I am bla bla and please reply to xxxx@xx.com
They aren't real people - they are chat bots aimed at collecting email addresses for future spamming, so they are not going to de-register. Obviously, the ones aimed at men have different parameters - they go on about how genuine/sincere you look... because whoever programmed them thought that would be what you wanted to hear.
Treat them like annoying pop-ups - just delete and ignore. When it's a real person, they will use your name/id, and mention something particular to you - "I see you're interested in naked ice-skating - that's a coincidence, so am I. How did you get into it?" etc.
In the meantime, it's real people in the forums - so hi! Nice to meet you!
I think part of the problem is that when you're young, you don't go out specifically looking for a partner. You're in a circle of similarly young, single people - and things click and develop if and when they do.
As you get older, most of our friends are married/attached, and looking for a partner becomes a specific goal, with a lot of expectations attached. The whole dating thing - that used to start off as fun - sharing interest and then maybe develop into partnership, has now become more of a stress loaded audition process. Scares the pants off me - I can tell you!
Hard to say from photos. How you carry yourself gives more clue about age - and that you only seen in movement and interaction.
As far as the future goes - don't worry about it. At 16, I passed easily for 19 or 20. At 51, most people say I don't look much over 40. If you look older/younger than you are now, it won't necessarily be the same in 20 or 30 years time.
Yes. Well, he's not called Garfield - mostly we call him "the boss". He's not a proper cat - I think he's probably a wizard in a cat skin. He looks like a cat, but the behaviour is definitely part human - and a very superior human, at that! You don't disagree with him - and his orders have to be obeyed immediately. In return, he's pretty long suffering and cuddle-able, when he feels like it.
Are you seriously suggesting that it's only worth showing interest in a woman if she's willing to drop everything to trot along in your glorious wake??
Let's try the boot on the other foot. Let's say she earns twice as much as you do and has a great job, she also has a lovely house bla, bla, bla .... Now, are you willing to give up your studies, job, home, economic independence etc. etc. to be with your woman? Or is a relationship with you not worth continuing?
Yes - as long as you're honest about your circumstances (ie separated but not (yet) divorced - fine. Life is full of twists and surprises - live in the moment, not on what might be or what could happen. Yes, they might go back to their ex (and they still might do this even after a divorce - look at Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor!!), or you might decide in a few months time this person isn't for you after all, or they (or you) might run off with someone else altogether, or a plane might fall out of the sky onto your head and it becomes irrelevant who's dating who. The future can't be predicted or fixed.
Be honest, don't deceive or intentionally hurt anyone - and enjoy the moment.
"The course of true love never did run smooth..." - there are going to be bumps along the way whatever - and there's nothing you can do to stop that - so enjoy the good bits, and be prepared to hang onto your hat for the rough bits!
Spinning off from God vs Science - how about God vs. religion?
1) If there were no religion, would there still be a God/ess/es?
I think most people who believe in any God/ess/es would say yes. Religion prescribes/suggests how the God/ess/es in question should be honoured, but the God/ess/es are there anyway.
2) If there were no God/ess/es, would there still be religion?
I think probably yes. Every culture, however small, everywhere in the world, has some sort of religion. People seem to need to have an explanation for the unexplained.
So, if God/ess/es and religion are essentially independent of each other (each would exist without the other) - what is the relationship between them?
Do you get slapped very often? If you go around assuming all women want to be touched, I imagine you do??
Touch me for just for sake of it and you'll get a sharp verbal warning. Do it twice, and you might need an urgent appointment with the dentist. Do it again, and you'll need an ambulance!!
Sorry, but keep your hands to yourself, please, until the time and moment is right - then it's touch and be touched!
I think the greatest proponents of "age is nothing but a number" are men of 50+ looking for women 18-28! You see, it's THEIR age that's just a number, the woman's is very clearly defined!!
I think most women generally tend to prefer men around their own age or a little older. Personally, I consider 5 or 6 years either way to be "my own age" and up to 10 years is unlikely to cause any major problems if the people involved are compatible in other respects. The are instances of bigger age differences that can work - there was 14 years between my parents and they stayed together, but I can't say it was easy.
However, I don't think it's ideal or something to seek out. If it happens it does. I think people who actually go out LOOKING for a big age difference (as in the men 50+ looking for women 18-28) are rather creepy.
Gilly - you need to get out more. Take that tin foil off your head and go out and get a life.
If you do that, you might start putting your questions in the positive ... "have you ever..." rather than "I bet you haven't..." and who knows - this might be the best year of YOUR life!
I'm already in Europe with a monthly stipend of about $2.000 - so I guess I'll take the 10 mins on the moon - just as long as I can come home to the European lifestyle and my job/s afterwards!
I think you might be reading too much into "wanting a man who knows what he wants". I'd probably say that myself, but would mean a man who is decisive and can take the initiative, and doesn't leave everything to me - not anything more profound than that. A man who says "Let's go and do such-and-such at the weekend..." rather than "what would you like to do at the weekend..".
If I want to be slavishly followed around, and have someone go along with all my ideas, I'll get a dog.
What you want and what you get are two totally different things. When I think about all the men I've fallen for over the years - were they all the same? NO! Did they even have some things in commong? NO! Anyone, male or female, may have a theoretical idea of what they want - but that goes out of the window when the lighning strikes!
Stay single forever? Yeah - it might happen. I'm prepared for it, even if it's not what I would ideally like. There are worse things. (Being stuck in a marriage with someone abusive, or who bores you to death, for example!) Get struck by lightning again? Avoided it successfully for over 10 years - but now keep finding myself drawn to the idea of hanging around under trees in thunderstorms!
I must say, I agree with you about the tone, Robert! The "I bet you haven't..." - or rather "I BET YOU HAVEN'T..." start (with the implication "I have, so you're an lesser being") get's my back up too and I tend to not bother with those threads.
However, from the non-capitalised threads Gilly has posted, he seems intelligent and well meaning - so perhaps it's just a semantic and typographical thing. If the same questions were posed as "Has anyone ever....?" rather than "I BET YOU HAVEN'T..." we'd might feel quite differently about them!
It depends a bit on the circumstances, but where it is appropriate (ie not making a big deal of it, and when the situation warrants it), yes, I do like these sort of things. I think it's an indication of a man's upbringing and education, if you like. I think it's also a sign of a woman's upbringing and education when she can accept these little conventions graciously, and not feel threatened or put down by them.
Being intelligent, independent, capable etc. doesn't make you less of a woman - so why shouldn't you enjoy the little social conventions that go around it? If you complain about a man opening a door for you, you shouldn't complain if he doesn't rush to your assistance if you're attacked on the street.
TO give a semi-serious answer - I think the world in a matriarchal system would look very different. I saw a very interesting article about one of the few remaining matriarchies which is in China.
The whole social structure is different, and based on different values. It's not a mirror image of our society, but with women in charge - it has a whole different persepective.
When we look at women in present and recent history in powerful positions in the rest of the world (Maggie Thatcher, Golda Maier, Angela Merkl, Hillary Clinton, Helen Clark etc. etc. etc.) they are playing by the mens' rules, as they are working within a social structure created predominantly by men. If women designed and shaped the society, they would make the rules and probably base that on different values.
As a woman, I like the principles this matriarchal society is based on - but you'd have to go back to the beginning and re-shape the whole thing. If you just substituted women for men under the present structure, I don't think it would be much different.
Good point, Kitty! Weary Traveller - how about options for "Take the story to the papers" / "Report the pharmacist to the medical ethics governing body" / "Borrow the money from friends or family" / "Launch an appeal to raise the money". I voted for stealing as I thought it was the best of the offered options - but there could be other ways to deal with the sitution and the pharmacist that would solve the problem for the man legally and with a clear conscience!
Rhiannon3 Forum Posts (66)
RE: you can trust animals more than humans
Definitely. Animals are always honest and true to themselves.If you "trust" a tiger not to eat you - that's not trust - that's stupidity. A tiger is a tiger, and behaves like a tiger - which means it kills to eat. If you misunderstand its nature - that's not the tiger's fault.
You can trust the tiger to behave like a tiger. You can't trust a human to behave in a civilised, human or humane way - they might, they might not, they might under certain circumstances, or they might if they feel they get a good deal out of it. The human will very likely be second guessing you - the animal won't be.
No contest!