It almost seems like the end of the (forum) world is coming!!

[Michael823]

Not sure once my paid subscription is done I'll be here. I'm not enjoying it much anymore. People I considered friends have ended up back stabbing and those I thought of just acquaintances have truly had my back. This place has truly changed and I"m not sure it's for the better.

Sometimes it feels overwhelming to me too, but being part of the majority is really unimportant in the grand scheme of things. I have always enjoyed your posts, and can definitely relate to a lot of what you say, in many, many ways. I can also put some of the responsibility on myself though, sometimes I care too much what someone posts, and have too great of a desire to respond.
The bad always seems to outweigh the good in life, but I like coming back to this site for the occasional times where I feel optimistic about people, although it's rare (with people in general, I think his site has a greater % of great folks than the rest of society).

 

[Michael823]

Carpet pythons are easier to keep than corns.... Well as easy... They only get slightly longer.... IJ's are about the same length actually.... They are arboreal so a lot more interesting AND great for display, and they eat mice or small rats......
A nice natural set up in the lounge 4X2X2 with a perch and you could be into a new obsession......

We could be talking about the Pepsi Challenge and you would choose Carpet Pythons ! I agree though, they are amazing. I would like to hear more about your collection too. I have Corn Snakes ranked #1 overall, but I love variety, and certain species have amazing attributes that others do not. I would love to find a nice IJ, there just seems to be a lot of variation, so I would have to find the right one.

 

[Michael823]

A perfect pendulum permanently swings in a pattern back and forth prescribing precise periods into perpetuity.

That's deep !

 

[Carinata]

Well if there were a pepsi challenge for keepers that had some sort of experience I would choose king rats (Elaphe Carinata) as the best snake for well established keepers. They get around 8 foot which is not terrible, they need a 4x2x2. They eat medium rats as adults. They can be tamed. They also interact with their main keeper. My girl will come to the glass and greet me when I come home from school. She will sit on my bed while I read a book. She is an over all great pet

 

[Lennycorn]

Well if there were a pepsi challenge for keepers that had some sort of experience I would choose king rats

No "pooping" David,

How would I guess that answer???. LOL

We alllll know you love you rat. LOL
What else WOULD you say.

 

[vetusvates]

That's deep !

The beauty of it (the metaphor of a pendulum) is reaching the age where you can truly rely on it and trust it.

There is a giant one hanging in the lobby of the United Nations Building in New York. The Foucault Pendulum. It left quite an impression on me.
I never think about politics or economics without thinking about a pendulum, swinging back and forth.....over years and fashion and conflicts.

At least it was still there,...the last time I was there,...in 1981.

 

[Carinata]

No "pooping" David,

How would I guess that answer???. LOL

We alllll know you love you rat. LOL
What else WOULD you say.

I do love my rat! She is awesome! Best snake I could ask for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 100% better than your snakes lenny!

 

[Lennycorn]

I do love my rat! She is awesome! Best snake I could ask for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 100% better than your snakes lenny!

Yeah but dose she burn well???

That's a joke in poor taste.

 

[vetusvates]

It being a female specimen, I prefer to affectionately refer to said snake as HRH The Stinking Goddess.

She'll be interior decorating with her exotic oriental scents and accents soon enough.

 

[Kokopelli]

Mike, if you weren't on the other side of the pond, I'd probably take you up on it. Or atleast ask for an invite to see your collection. As is I'm stuck here in the states and am limited to corns. And to be honest I truly do enjoy this site. I just need to stay away from threads started by certain people.
I also think it would be best if I just keep my friggin mouth shut and just read for awhile. Darn shame I can't comment on the nice snakes and critters I'll see. But then that would be hypocritical of me to comment on some threads and not others.....lol

I think that the most natural thing in the world is to choose your battles. If you do not like someone, you avoid his/her company- again, that's perfectly natural.
I also do not think that me not liking a person should have any sort of affect on whether or not I can comment on a particular snake that he owns. It's not the snake's fault, and my taste remains unaffected.
If it will spare you unneeded stress, you should avoid certain threads.

Back home we avoid politics on all threads in the forum. Political views are the product of years of experience, education at home and personal consideration- as such, most people will have a very solid opinion and the chances to change it are not too high.

Few people can, at all times, remember that the opinion of others do not threaten their own. It takes a lot of self control and let's face it... not everyone can maintain it all the time, not without some measure of strain.

I am not suggesting to ban the political threads,

Just from the side-lines however, the way the threads are started is already extremely opinionated or presented in a subjective manner impersonating an objective one. Maybe it would help to present a fact, a topic, with no opinion shared and than discuss.

However, some matters are just too charged... for instance, I do not believe that I will personally be able to have a peaceful discussion with someone who denies the Holocaust.
I may be able to keep calm, but not for long. I will not be able to conduct an actual discussion, I'd have to avoid it or I'll lose my temper at some point I imagine.

Carpet pythons are easier to keep than corns.... Well as easy... They only get slightly longer.... IJ's are about the same length actually.... They are arboreal so a lot more interesting AND great for display, and they eat mice or small rats......
A nice natural set up in the lounge 4X2X2 with a perch and you could be into a new obsession......

Ermm, well. I find pythons as a rule of the thumb to be a slightly more complex snake to keep. Carpets specifically should have the arboreal set up you mentioned... more stable temperatures, and I am not sure about IJ's but the Jungles definitely can have some attitude.
I am all for advising to people to try out new snakes... though it leads to a phenomena I don't like as much- buying and selling snakes as if they were socks... I admit I have sinned, in that regard.
I tried a Ball python, Green Tree Python, Cornsnakes which I have bought and sold on repeatedly(God knows what's the deal I have with these)... until I discovered the BCIXHoggs (Boas) we have over here and I am now hooked.

Before I lose my string of thought though, I found colubrids to usually be less complicated to keep. So... personally I would never compare a corn to a python or boa.
However, I can say this- personally I prefer to keep pythons and boas because they poop MUCH less. Slightly more complicated they may be... but some end up being lower maintenance... which is down right cool

 

[dave partington]

I also think it would be best if I just keep my friggin mouth shut and just read for awhile. Darn shame I can't comment on the nice snakes and critters I'll see. But then that would be hypocritical of me to comment on some threads and not others.....lol

Yeah, well, I'm still working on that aspect of myself too, the 'diarrhea of the fingers' thing. And I'd like to believe others around these here parts are too. If I read something perhaps it is in my best interest to not post an immediate reply, but rather to think over my words carefully, perhaps even sleep on it first. Many of the members have more going on in their lives then changing water bowls or creating new threads. The older we get the more tasks we take on. Many persons are stressed out, and frequently anger is mis-directed. Maybe it's because taking it out on someone who is not a person in our offline life is less detrimental to our offline lives. Making excuses and using the phrase "just because" does not make some of the things I've said acceptable. The word "just" comes from "justify"; I just did something because (fill in excuse here). Many of us have learned (consciously or not) that when we use the word "just", the context of what we're saying- what we are saying is not questioned, or we receive an apology or a warm/fuzzy reply "Oh Im so sorry I didn't know whatever was going on..." and somehow justifying ourselves (in an act of self-preservation) is sufficient means for sweeping the baggage we're carrying around with ourselves under the rug. It doesn't make that baggage go away. So it sits around and builds up, and causes more stress and anxiety and ulcers and mini-strokes. Looking deeper within my own self, I know I need to work on not being a dick. But getting back to the portion of

But then that would be hypocritical of me to comment on some threads and not others

, I don't believe hypocrite is applicable to replying or not replying. To reply or not to reply has more to do with whether something is provocative (regardless of positive or inbetween or negative feelings) to ones' own person. Don't beat yourself up over it. Perhaps like most of us, some of it is your individual nature. Some of it is how you were "cultured" or what your "extraction" (upbringing) has enabled you to become. We're all forever changing. Much of these behaviors any one of us has are learned behaviors. Someone taught us what to think or how to think. Often the persons we learned from were our parents, close friends, family, persons in our immediate community. People we Respect for one reason or another. To think or act in a way they would not approve of would be an insult to them or perhaps alienate ourselves from them, and thought of doing so invokes personal insecurity. Sometimes there was even the threat of "if you don't agree with me on this you'll
a) be cut out of my will
b) be sorry
c) no longer be my friend
d) other____________
So therefore, if you know what's best for you, you won't challenge me on this
(In other words, like a dictator, they know what's best for you).
But we do not have to do what they tell us to do, because then we give up freedom to be our own person. Dis-enabled. Dis-empowered. There's always going to be some junk under the rug, but we have a choice to control what's under our own rugs. It is not for someone else to tell us. And if getting cut out of a will is what's necessary to get on with an ulcer-free lifestyle, then go for it. If thinking or doing things the same way over and over again is acheiving the same end result, that, friends, is one of the definitions of insanity. If someone is driving you insane, you don't have to let them. We all have choices of our own to make. Whether to absorb something, or not absorb something. If someone hands you a fecal sandwich, you don't have to eat it. You can push it to the side of your plate. You can throw it away. You can hand it back to them. You can get up and go to a different place. In fact, you don't even have to accept something anybody is handing you. So all in all, one can be a victim or a volunteer, or not participate in a game someone else wants you to be in. So rather than instantly reacting to everything you read on threads, perhaps try a new road. Your own. Not the one you've been conditioned to take.
And then there's the old "I'm too old to change", which means "don't challenge me" or "I'm not comfortable with getting focused inwards on my own person because I'm perfect in my own mind". It's a cop-out. An unwillingness to improve ones own self. It may be difficult to respect someone who chooses to embrace such a thought, but if I don't, why would I ever expect them to respect my own thoughts? Unless I'm a hypocrite. You nice folks at home please let me know if you see me doing that. If you don't tell me, I won't know. Having feelings is part of the growing process. Anger, Denial, steps 3-11 or steps 3-6...depending on whether it's the 12 stepper or the 7 stepper.
falling off the soapbox
dave

 

[TandJ]

Oh my, a few years back, this place was like a three ring circus at times.. it has been a long summer period.. Like others have shed, the eb tide will subceed shortly and things will be calm for a few more monthes again.. Then everyone gets ancey from Cabin Fever and things get grumpy again, until breeding season.. Some wheres between egg laying and hatchlings, people get moody, and then guess what.. Summer time again.. *lol* Its the circle, or the momentume of the pendelum..


Sometimes I fire off a reply in haste, and other times I just ignore whole threads, or at least ignore the temptation to be a smart mouth.. the better and best of this site, definantly carries a lot more weight then some silly threads and people..

Regards..> Tim of T and J

 

[Elusive]

I've been lurking these forums for the last few months. (I'm still breathing) The problem is, about 5 months ago there was actually a lot of spammers then, it all stopped. Sometimes they break through the wall and get their 15 minutes of fame.

TBH, there is a lot of drama on these forums. I will not point any fingers.(mainly my tongue) but these forums go too fast for a guy like me. I decide I like fresh air, take a walk, come back and there is a whole new dispute happening.

I think we should start threads with a warning label that has an abbreviation for 'Come at your own risk, there can and will be fighting between two members of the forum'

CAYORTCAWBFBTMOTF. Pretty short, I like it.

 

[Lucille]

I don't think the end of the forum is coming

I don't think so either. When a group is composed of bright, opinionated, individualistic types of folks there is bound to be more friction that if one has a group of staid, quiet people who are only interested in maintaining the status quo.

 

[vetusvates]

What Lucille said.

 

[Michael823]

What Lucille said.

You're the philosopher of the group, and you're just going to stick with a "what Lucille said" response.

I want pendulums Eric !

 

[Lucille]

You're the philosopher of the group, and you're just going to stick with a "what Lucille said" response.

I want pendulums Eric !

Honeychile, while I agree that Vetusvates writes beautifully and with great talent, sometimes even us common folk can come up with an appropos post :cheers:

 

[Michael823]

Honeychile, while I agree that Vetusvates writes beautifully and with great talent, sometimes even us common folk can come up with an appropos post :cheers:

Is Honeychile a compliment ? You hit the nail on the head Lucille, and I would've been smart to stick with a "what Lucille said" too. I was just hoping for another powerful, pendulum swinging message.

 

[Lucille]

In the South, Honeychile is an endearment. I'm an old Southern nurse, so I tend to use those sorts of endearments sometimes.

I have to say, the pendulum post is outstanding and we are lucky to have such talent here (but ther seems to be a lot of talented people here)..

 

[vetusvates]

You're the philosopher of the group, and you're just going to stick with a "what Lucille said" response.

I want pendulums Eric !

" That silence is one of the great arts of conversation is allowed by Cicero himself , who says there is not only an art , but an eloquence in it . "
~~ St . Thomas More