Smileyface 12 91

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I see that all of your current contributions are on the Coton de Tulear page. If you are interested in contributing further to dog breed articles, than it may be helpful for you to look at WikiProject Dog breeds. You certainly don't have to join if you want to edit dog articles. However, it may be helpful to look at it, as it shows what the typical style is for dog breed articles.

I hope that you enjoy editing! Pharaoh Hound (talk) 13:04, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

New NRHP Collaboration Division

Hey, saw you were a participant in the National Register of Historic Places WikiProject. I thought I would let you know that there is a new Collaboration Division up for the project. The goal of the division is to select an article or articles for improvement to Good article standard or higher. There is a simple nomination process, which you can check out on the division subpage, to make sure each candidate for collaboration has enough interested editors. This is a good way to get a lot of articles to a quality status quickly. Please consider participating. More details can be seen at the division subpage. IvoShandor 11:16, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Hehehe

I changed a little bit of your spelling in the Fruits Basket talk page about the second season.Unless the director acutally said he put his "heart and his sole" in the anime.Mooncrest 20:53, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, my spelling is really bad but normally I check before I save it.Smileyface 12 91 08:00, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

A response to your post on my Talk Page

I have just one more question. Do you delete things off talk pages other than yours??? By the way I like Lord of the Rings too.

No, I NEVER delete stuff of other Talk Pages, whether other members or articles. I don't know the exact Wikipedia policy on doing that but it's one of my Number One No-Noes. I wouldn't want it done to me so I'd never do it to anyone else.

Did you ask me this because of the warning I posted on my page (people should have the courage to identify themselves if they're going to leave a message). Or did someone tell you that I tamper with other people's pages?

If you like Tolkien you should definitely read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson. It has much more adult content than LotR so perhaps you might want to run it by your parents.

Also, check out, if you haven't already, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Frank Herbert's Dune. (But ONLY Frank Herbert's. His son's books are crap; a desecration of his father's masterpiece.)

Oh and I personally like Bach and Mozart (I know that for my age group that is weired), but I still give a new bands a chance.

I've been a fan of Art Music as long as I can remember. In junior high the kids felt it was quite funny that I had cassettes of Beethoven and Johann Strauss (On the Blue Danube).

I have a large collection of everyone from "marquee" composers (i.e. Bach, Mozart, Vivaldi, Beethoven, et al) to Busoni, Sylvius Leopold Weiss (considered the greatest composer for the lute in history; he influenced the Great Bach and Vivaldi's writing for the instrument) to really obscure composers like Manfredini.

Alright so I have a pet peeve about people who don't listen to music (or when it comes to a book read it) and then say that it is bad. So I was wondering if you have listened to the Jonas Brothers?

First: with a "band" that comes out of the Disney Machine isn't hard to speculate about their sound. Also my wife has an unfortunate predilection for pop so she's heard their music and describe it to me; she told me their music was basically what I expected to would be.

I have a 7 yr old daughter (I'm 36 btw) who's a Disney Channel fan. She loves Hannah Montana, High School Musical, Cheetah Girls, etc.

This music is what we used to call "music by numbers" (you know those art kits with the little numbers on the pictures that tell you which color paint to use where? Same thing with these manufactured bands.)

I hope I don't sound patronizing, but I've been listening to stuff like this longer that you've been alive. It just gets old.

My pet peeve is music that's designed, packaged, marketed tested, focused grouped until any creativity that may have been there is squeezed to death. Call it the Maurice Starr School of Music.

I would also like to ask how many teenagers did you see at that rush concert? If it was less than a 25:75 teen to adult ration then one could say that I (I'm 15 by the way) or people in my age group are not there focus.

I admit wasn't keeping a count on the teen-to-adult ratio at the Rush show, but I was surprised at how many pepople were under 21. Rush has a large and loyal hard core following (they were one of the hottest concert draws in the 80s and early 90s). People were bringing their kids to the show. One kid was even 10 and he knew some of the songs.

The audience in their quintuple platinum concert video Rush in Rio (in Brazil) was 75% under 25.

Maybe Brazilian teens have better taste than American ones? Just kidding. Pls don't take offense.

Drop me a message anytime you want to talk.

Ciao.

PainMan 01:33, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Response 2

Your wife may have described their sound, but I would think that if you spent all day with your daughter that you would have heard Hold On, Year 3000, and Kids of the Future

Well, she's going to school full-time now and now that she's soon to be 8 (on Pearl Harbor Day), she doesn't watch as much Disney ('cept for Hannah Montana, Kim Possible and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody). She watches a lot of Discovery for Kids and Cartoon Channel these days. I think to myself, "My God, these cartoons suck!" Then I remember Justice League ("Wonder Twin Powers activate! Form of a Prius and black ice!!") and some of the other cartoons we used to watch back in the day...and they pretty much sucked too. (One exception would be Thundaar the Barbarian and Star Blazers (the latter is anime available on DVD and I highly recommend it).

I will grant you that I should listen to the Jonas Brothers before prounouncing final judgment but I seriously doubt that I'll find them to be anything different that I except.

I have attempted to read The Chronicles of Narnia, but it was so long that I just couldn't do it.

Even tho' it's not the first in the series, start with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. (The series actually begins with the The Horse and His Boy.)

If it doesn't speak to you now, leave on the shelf for a few years and then try it again. I hate to say this (since it's one of those things I always swore I'd never say) but at your age a few years can make a huge difference in your outlook and taste in music, literature, cinema, etc. And don't let your friends give you s**t if you discover that you like something that isn't considered "cool." I took flak in jr high simply because the books I read didn't have pictures!

In my own case, for years I couldn't get past the first few pages of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. However, I read all seven last week (I read Deathly Hollows in about 12 hours).

I was utterly enthralled. With Half-Blood Prince Rowling (to borrow a little from Ronald Reagan) escapes the bonds of genre and touches literature. She's definitely, with the last two books entered into the rarefied company of Tolkien, Lewis, Donaldson, etc. While I still really like the movies (the end of Goblet of Fire surpasses the book in imagery, if nothing else), the books are so much deeper, so much richer as books almost always are.

I didn't expect you to count who was at the concert, but instead to think that if you were at a concert for any band that old (and really should they be touring in they're 60's)

Hey!! They are only in their mid-50s! Mick Jagger is older than my Dad and he's touring. It's not so much his age, it's that he cavorts on stage as tho' he were still 27.

And, yes, I do think they should be touring. The show was amazing. They played for more than three hours to a wildly enthusiastic crowd. And they are LOUD. My ears were still ringing at noon the next day. To use a cliche, they rocked the house the way bands in their 20s can only dream about doing.

And there were some very attractive teenage girls at the show which surprised me. Back in the day, the only chicks at Rush concerts were the stoner chicks. The girls with Metallica and Judas Priest denim jackets. (Are there still girls like that running around in your high school?)

You'll find it happens to you too. If your favorite bands last--and most of them are praying to have careers like Rush, still filling arenas after 33 years, albums debuting at No. 3 after 33 years etc. I guarantee you the Jonas Brothers would sell their cousins to have the career Rush has had.

You have to remember that almost everything is made for an age group (mostly because you can't please everyone).

This is EXACTLY the problem I'm trying to key you into. Music (movies, TV shows, books) should NOT have to run the gauntlet of marketing pukes, focus groups, Q-cores and test screenings.

This is one of the reasons I admire Rush so much. They make music for themselves and they don't give a damn whether anyone likes it but themselves. They have an integrity that's so rare in the entertainment business it's almost shocking. To quote from their highest charting single (reached No. 8 in 1980) "The Spirit of Radio:

For the words of the profits

Are written on the studio wall,

Concert hall -

(And) echoes with sounds...

of salesmen, of salesmen

____________________________________

So my next question is why don't you like music since 1991?

That's hyperbolic, admittedly. It's also the date the last really good Rush album came out (Roll the Bones). There are very, very few songs that come out since that I like. (An exception would be Jane Monheit but she sings jazz and the American Songbook.) There's Coldplay's Clocks, KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree", Kelly Clarkson's last album ("Sober" is a beautiful, haunting song) and a few others.

Is it the fact that it is made for an age group?

See six paragraphs up. ;o)

Last question why Brazil?

According to Geddy, on the companion disc to Rush in Rio, they always had sold a small number of records (see how I date myself?). What they didn't realize was that for every CD sold, 8 bootlegs, on average, are made. It's not piracy (per se), just people making tapes for their friends who can't afford to buy the disc. So they had a helluva lot more fans than they ever realized down there.

A Brazilian reporter asked Geddy, "Why haven't you ever come to Brazil before?"

His answer: "Because we're not very smart."

In three concerts they sold over 150,000 tickets. They also performed before the biggest crowd in their career, over 60,000 people in a Rio suburb (I'd have to check to be sure on the location...).

My point in bringing up Brazil was that they do have a huge fan base of young people at least in Brazil, if not in the US and Canada. But that's because their (US/Canuck) fans got older. I first started listening to them when I was 13 (they were also my first concert at 15; I paid $14.95; for roughly the same seats this year I paid $140--EACH!) and I'm now 36. That's 23 years of loyalty because their music is timeless. Listen to "Subdivisions" off the Signals LP. It's the greatest statement of teen alienation ever written.

Growing up it all seemed so one-sided

Opinions all provided,

The future pre-decided,

Detached and subdivided

In the mass production zone

No where is the dreamer

Or the misfit so alone

Any escape might to sooth the unattractive truth

But the suburbs have no charms to sooth

The restless dreams of youth.

I'll still be listening to Moving Pictures and 2112 them I'm in the nursing home and my grandchildren are draining their trustfunds dry.

Write back; I'm interested in what you have to say. And, if you don't find the question inappropriate, are you male or female? By your writing style, I'd say the former. But I've been wrong before.

PainMan 08:39, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Response 3

I'm a girl I would think that was obvious because my user name is Smileyface_12_91 ^_~ and I don't think I write like a boy, but oh well not like I can change my writing stile.

I didn't mean it as an insult that I guessed you were a boy by your writing style; apologies if you took it the wrong way. In fact, if I didn't know already, I wouldn't have guessed that JK Rowling is a woman. How can I tell? Well, I've been reading since age 2 and have been a voracious reader ever since (I read all the Potter books in a week). So I can usually tell a writer's sex by the prose style.

"Smileyface" did kinda clue me into your sex, but one can never be sure. I've seen some seriously, ah, unusual "screen names".

I would suggest reading them all again because sometimes you pick up on new things you didn't notice before (same goes with movies).

Imo, that's always been the test for good/great writing and or films (including TV shows; e.g. I've watched the entire run of Babylon 5 at least six times, that's approximately 110 eps).

If it's a work of quality you'll always discover new things no matter how many times you read/watch it. I've been reading Tolkien off and on since I was 13. I try to re-read that book (it was written as one book; it was chopped into three by the original publisher to save money; Prof. Tolkien was not happy about this). The LotR films are also an example of a movie one can watch over and over and still discover new things.

If you haven't seen them (perhaps because of parental disapproval?), I highly recommend the The Godfather films. You might want to wait on reading the book. It's much more graphic than the movies. Scorsese's own crime "trilogy" (Mean Streets, Goodfellas and Casino is highly recommended.

You said you liked an anime (Star Blazers), and that doesn't really surprise me (my mother who is only slightly older than you loves a couple of anime), but mostly because most anime can be watched by many different age groups. There are currently some really good ones out there like (I warn you they say a lot of s**t and d**m in the following anime) Inu Yasha (you can see it on carton network's adult swim), fullmetal Alchemist (this one is on adult swim also) , and Fruits Basket (bad ending but a good anime and one your daughter would probably enjoy).

I'm not a big anime fan. Star Blazers came to my attention because the local independent station (this was back in the day when most towns, even big ones, had three channels, in San Diego we were lucky, we had five!) ran it in the morning. I used to watch it with my Dad and little brother (who's now three inches taller than I am; so much for "little").

It doesn't surprise me that your mother and I are about the same age. It's still kind of odd to think that I could have a kid in college (thankfully I don't!) or even that I could be the father of a 15 yr old.

There's a line from a great Bob Seeger song, "Twenty years now, where'd they go?" or Floyd's:

And then one day you find Ten years have got behind you...

You may feel like getting to adulthood is going to take forever. Believe me, it won't. John Mellencamp put it best:

Hang on to sixteen as long as you can Changes comin' round real soon Make [you] women and men.

Alright I was wrong they are in they're mid 50's, but still have you noticed all the older band still touring (lets face it although they have sold out concerts all the time and any band in there right mind would trade with them any dayKiss is getting up there in age to be putting on all that make up). Yeah I'm sure they have a loyal following but still when are they going to have they're "last tour" so they can have the comeback tour when they get bored and then have they're "last tour" again because someone almost broke a hip and then yet another comeback tour, but this time the drummer is different (not saying I have anything against the drummer) and then they would have the first drummer comeback and tour until they can't get up the stage anymore.

I'll agree with you that, at a certain point, it does get to look rather odd. As I mentioned before, Mick Jagger is older than my father. The difference is that Mick's still acting like he's 21 instead of 64.

I've seen a number of these "old" bands in the last couple of years: The Eagles, Stevie Nicks, U2 (do they count as an "old" band? ;o), etc.

Rush has never played up to the media (nor have any of them, to my knowledge, been caught in bed with David Bowie (I kid you not, Bowie's ex-wife made the claim in TV interviews, and a book I think; since neither of them has sued her for slander....).

They are the bestselling band in Canada's history and have the longest unbroken string of gold and platinum albums third only the the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (in that order).

This is one of the reasons they are almost totally ignored by the Drive By media (i.e. the so-called "mainstream" media). They rarely get reviews, let alone positive ones. Rolling Stone magazine completely ignores them except for snotty album reviews. Entertainment Weekly took no notice that their current album debuted @ No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Nor did they even review it.

Of course, when Alex was arrested on totally bogus resisting arrest charges they reported that.

They have been getting some more respect the last few years but it's hardly commensurate to their achievements. They've sold approximately 40,000,000 records. There are d*mn few bands that wouldn't like to sell over a million copies every year for over three decades!

Take (you guessed it) the Jonas brothers most of the songs they sing are written by them so yes teenagers (preteens mostly) would be more likely to like them.

If they write their own material, that puts them in the minority. The vast majority of these "tween" bands are machine bands, manufactured, marketed, packaged just like soap or jeans or video games.

Perhaps I'm not the best judge? I've never liked music "aimed" at the teen audience, even when I was a teenager. Other kids were listening to the Wham!, Fine Young Cannibals, Madonna (and many, many others) while I was listening to Zep*, Floyd*, ELP, the Moody Blues, Rush (of course), Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, The Beatles, et al.

(I was hardly alone with Zep and Floyd; the former enjoyed a huge resurgence in the mid-80s and Floyd's Darkside of the Moon is the longest-charting album in history. It's been on the charts since 1973. A few years ago the weasels at Billboard arbitrarily decided that after a certain number of weeks (1500, I think) on the chart an album had to come off the charts. Not surprisingly, Darkside went right back on.

I'd be interested to know how high school is at your school? Things seem to have changed drastically in the, ah, almost twenty years since I graduated. Of course, as my wife and I have come to learn (yes we both went to the same high school; in fact we've known each other since 7th grade), our high school experience was very different than many of our contemporaries.

There were almost no fights--maybe six or seven in the three years. The jocks were kept under rigid control by the coaches and the administration. I knew a lot of them anyway and they just weren't the kind of guys inclined to bullying anyway.

The point is: there just weren't the kind of cliques I've heard about. Not that our high school was perfect; far from it. But it was very, very different from almost any I've ever heard of.

PainMan 16:50, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Response 4

I wasn't to mad that you got it wrong, but I don't know it was weird. Speaking of interesting screen names were do you get yours from?

Not quite sure what you meant by but I don't know it was weird (?).

As for my screen name/handle/user name, it comes from the fact that I suffer from chronic pain (due to a disease) and have since I was about 19 (basically, my entire adult life). I'm permanently disabled. So I've stayed home with our daughter and my wife works. Fortunately, it's an arrangement we can afford.

as an aspiring writer (I suck at it, but people tell me I write well and I like it so I'm an aspiring writer)

You definitely don't suck as a writer. In fact, you write a LOT better than most adults (sadly many people my age are wretched at it). You can string together thoughts in coherent order.

I've been "aspiring" for 26 years. Since I was 11. I've had some Letters to the Editor published as well as corresponded with some reporters, pundits, etc.

When it's your time to write your book(s) you will.

The key thing to keep in mind is this: MOST people want to HAVE written a book. Real writers enjoying the actual WRITING.

(Stole that from Andy Rooney.)

If you want to get an idea of just how badly educated people are, watch one of the "judge" shows or even listen to Dr. Laura (Schlesinger)'s radio program. You'll cringe at just how hard it is for so many people to express themselves! It's just sad. And it's not really limited to one age group (though older folks tend to be better educated; when my parents--your grandparents got far, far better educations that I got and you're getting).

Less than 3% of Americans have advanced degrees (i.e. master's and PH'ds); I'm not sure what the percentage is for bachelor's degrees but I don't think it's more than 10%.

U2 doesn't count. But Bono is only 47 so he still has like 10 years before he is as old as anyone from Rush.

You sure you want to leave your position thusly? Geddy's only 54. Which, when you're 37, doesn't seem so old any more.

Rush's first album (titled eponymously) came out in 1974 & boy, U2's first album Boy came out in 1980.

Actually the two tween Disney bands...

I finally saw a Jonas Brother's video. I can't say I was impressed. But at least I'm no longer speculating.

The Beatles and The Beach Boys were good and I think a lot of people would sell there whole career to have half there career. They still have a good number fans and they stopped touring how long ago (no seriously how long ago)

I saw the Beach Boys many times when I was a kid/teen. They used to play after Padres' games (in San Diego).

PainMan 08:07, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

In Re: Thought thias might interest you

I know you like older bands so I thought it might interest you that it cost 7 Million Dollars to hire The Rolling Stones sing for you (wow) But wait there is more. You can hire the Eagles for the low low price of 7.8 Million Dollars (ok I so that is REALLY expensive). Just thought you might be interested.

Where'd you get those numbers? (Just out of curiosity?). I know that Microsoft paid the Stones $12M

I once worked for a talent agent who set private concerts like that up.

Also, when I saw U2 here in Vegas in 2005, they started 20 minutes late because they'd played a birthday. One hour for $1M.

PainMan 08:08, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Response 5

Sorry I forgot to sign the posts. That's odd, I'm normally meticulous about that. Whoops! I must've been distracted (my 7 year old could distract the 82nd Airborne).

I was a little angry that you couldn't tell I was a girl, but I don't think anyone can really tell who you are by how you write. So yes I was mad but it was strange for some one to not know that, but at the time I had just gotten a boyfriend so I was giddey and I think I had event just got done IMing him.

I didn't mean to offend (and sorry that I did) for not picking up on your sex. (I know the word "gender" has become popular but it's use in every context but grammar is simply incorrect.)

The upside is that I wouldn't have responded if I hadn't been impressed by your writing. You're obviously highly intelligent and a good writer.

A little footnote: it was my wife's beautiful writing that attracted me to her in the first place. Although we've known each other for 25 yrs (i.e. since 7th grade) we were not friends and didn't socialize. It was her reply to an email I sent to her that sparked our relationship. And here we are nine years later: married with daughter.

In fact, before you corrected my error, I considered asking your if you wanted to be an Email "pen pal". However, given that you are a 15 yr old girl and I'm more than twice your age & asking for you to send me an email is probably inappropriate; so I dropped the idea once I knew you were a girl. I have such "pen pals" all over the world (and the US). How do you feel about this?

But I know that I would be uncomfortable with my daughter exchanging emails with a man so much older than she. It's a sad statement about our times that even a long distance friendship (between people like us) is automatically suspicious.

It's doubly unfortunate because as I had no sisters I have no idea about what teen girls think about today and, frankly, could use a "coach" (if that's the right word) to help me understood my daughter better since she's only a few years away from adolescence and it scares the #@$% of me.

It is said (tho' I don't know what this is based on) that 1 in 3 kids under 18 will be solicited by a Net pervert. I certainly hope that isn't true. But Dateline NBC's creep stings show just what a shocking variety of men are so sick and so stupid. Our own local NBC affiliate did a similar sting with a reporter posing as a 14 yr old girl and men from all over the country (!) flew here to meet her. And not to discuss the Jonas Brothers. Unfortunately, Nevada doesn't have a law against soliciting decoys so none of the men could be arrested & prosecuted. I only hope the TV station sent copies of the tape to the wives and employers of these pervs.

PainMan 08:34, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Response 5.1 (sorry for the length)

Onto subjects the more pleasant...or, at least, less awkward...

It is sad you didn't like the Jonas Brothers, but I didn't expect you to. Am happy that now you can make a much more educated dision as to wether or not you like them. Do you remeber which video you saw? That is really cool you saw the Beach Boys.

I'm sorry, I didn't catch the name of the tune. To my aging ears, it sounded little different than most of the Disneyrock out there.

You were right to call me on the carpet for opining about the Jonas Brothers without having heard a note. Even though I was confirmed in my opinion once I finally did hear them, I shouldn't have been so arrogant and condescending (two of my myriad of flaws) without at least listening to the 1 minute taste that Amazon and iTunes gives you of their song.

So thanks for pointing out how dumb I liked shooting of my mouth in ignorance.

Then again my Dad felt--still feels!--the same way about Rush, Zep, etc. My Dad basically thinks there hasn't been any good music since The Day the Music Died (that is, 1959 when Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens died in a plane crash; Don McLean wrote one of the greatest song ever compose American Pie using these event as a metaphor for the loss of innocence of his generation to Kennedy's death, Vietnam, and the whole mess that was the Sixties.

If you've never heard American Pie, I HIGHLY recommended you buy it from iTunes and listen very closely. It's 8 minutes long, but it's one of my all-time favorites and is considered one of the greatest songs ever written. (McClean also wrote haunting tribute to Vincent Van Gogh; called Vincent strangely enough...).

Yeah, it was tres cool to see the Beach Boys the five or six times I did. The Beatles broke up before I was born, Zep when I was in 5th grade and Floyd when I was in 6th. So I feel lucky to have gotten to see such legends performed. Of course, even tho' I was a kid and didn't own a record of theirs, I still new the words to nearly ever song. My parents were big fans.

It's sad that you have been in pain most of your life.

Thank you; I appreciate that. I know of people far worse than me. Ironically, my meds cause me as many problems as my condition. It's made me appreciate a lot of things I took for granted when I was young and dumb (or just dumber as my wife tells me).

I understand the thing you "stole" from Andey Rooney and I agree. I love writing (although I could do with out the writers block)

I hear that! I've pretty much be "blocked" since high school. I used to write constantly on our (then-state of the art) XT PC; before that I used my mother's typewriters. I even wrote a 100+ page story when I was about 11 about the crew of a spaceship that crashed on an alien planet and had all kinds of adventures and stuff. I'm know how cliched it sounds and I'm sure it would be a giggle-fest to read. Unfortunately I no longer have it.

I'm aiming to write Romance novels. Historical romance novels. 52% of paperback sales are romance; only 7% are science fiction.

While my ultimate dream is to create an intergalactic civilization as a framework for many stories/novels, I'd also like to be a professional writer. Since I love history (and my wife loves historical romances, she has hundreds) it's not really a stretch for me to write in that genre.

One of these days my Muse will return and I'll sit down at the computer with "fire in my belly" and get it done and, then, hopefully, sold. I would love to ditch disability and write for a living. Of course, I'd like to be the next JK Rowling, but I'd settle for selling 10 million copies instead of 120,000,000.

I also listen to Dr. Laura when I'm in the car with my grandfather.

I've been listening occasionally since 1990 (largely because she usually follows Rush Limbaugh. She gave me an entire segment (8 minutes). I was once a caller on her show. The topic is too private to reveal in such a public place. She really did help me. She managed to put into perspective my issue(s) in a way I had never considered. I know she can be offensively rude sometimes (given how incoherent some of her callers are I can't blame her sometimes; Job couldn't have that much patience with people who are incapable of telling their story in any kind of sensible narrative).

One thing you have to remeber is that colleges cost a lot more than they use to (scharships here I come)

My kid is 10 years away from college (maybe she'll marry a billionaire and skip it, he said whistling...) and I am very aware of the insane cost.

You may find it interesting that college tuition only began to skyrocket after the Federal government started giving financial aid and loans to students. Sounds bizarre, but it's true. It's actually a basic law of economics.

With the Feds putting so much money out there, colleges were inevitably going to raise tuition. When you have more dollars chasing the same commodities (whether it's cars or education or houses), the sellers are going to raise prices in order to make as much money as possible.

Harvard, for example, has an endowment of something like $7 billion dollars and yet they are $35,000 a year! The day when an undergrad degree costs $100,000 a year is not very far off for the top schools. In fact, it may v ery well be that much by the time my daughter's ready for it.

If the government ended all loans and all aid (e.g. Pell Grants), tuition would drop like a rock overnight. Colleges, even state schools, would be forced to choose between losing the vast majority of their students (and thus becoming what they were in the 19th century, bastions of the elite) and cutting tuition.

Naturally they'd do the latter. And people wouldn't come out of Harvard (or Yale or Berkeley or Princeton) over $100,000 in loans!

That doesn't even cover grad school, esp Med or Law. A newly graduated attorney or physician can easily owe $250,000 dollars before they've ever practiced their profession. It's no wonder that only those lucky enough to land jobs at the top law firms and hospitals that can have any kind of life before their 50.

Interesting factoid: in 1970 the difference between the starting salary of a rookie teacher and a rookie lawyer (in NYC) was $3000 higher for the latter. Now the difference is $130,000 a year for the lawyers. (Starting salaries for associates a major firm is around $170,000; by contrast Assistant District Attorneys, in NYC, start at $100,000 a year and Legal Aid (i.e. defense lawyers) start at $35000. Is it any wonder that prosecutors win over 90% of trials?

One of my brothers-in-law got railroaded because he a lawyer who couldn't find his [expletive delete] with both hands and a map.

there are some really dumb scholar ships that after you get to the point were you can get the scholar ship you could go to college with out the scholar ship like this (I suggest checking out who has won).

I checked the site. It says the winner for 2007 was a girl who started the first "student" credit union.

There's NO WAY she could have done this without help from her parents or other adult(s). You can't sign a contract until you are 18 (in some cases 21). She would have needed her parents to make the contracts and all the other business decisions legal.

I applaud the initiative but there's just no way this girl did this without adults.

You wanna talk about silly scholarships? Ever heard of the Gatlin scholarship? As the name suggests, it was created by the who created the primitive machine gun the Gatlin gun. To qualify you have to:

A. Be a blood relative of the long-dead inventor. B. Go to the University of North Carolina (!)

Not surprisingly almost no one takes advantage of this scholarship so the money just sits in some account earning interest doing no one any good except the bank and the money managers.

If you live in California (if the whole state doesn't burn down that is; I grew up in San Diego so it's really weird watching your hometown go up in smoke) make sure to apply the state if you meet the economic guidelines.

My ex-wife got $5000 a year to attend USC (and this was in 1994!) from the state (but they only told her after she'd accepted Purdue University's offer. Typical bureaucracy, buy the saddle after the horse has already escaped from the barn.

Alright I see your point about U2, but they don't seem old. I'm not saying Rush is, but if you go into most high schools and ask ever kid in that High School most kids will not be listening to Rush and some will be listening to U2. Not saying that this says anything because my generation really doesn't now anything about music (rap not my favaorit type of music).

You are probably right that most kids would not be fans of Rush, but I'd be willing to be that those kids with older siblings or parents (like me and your mother) who are fans know who they are. My daughter certainly does. (And when Mom's not around talking trash, she actually likes their music.)

And, I understand that you perceive Rush as "old." When I was fifteen, 53 seemed like death warmed over. Now that I'm 37, believe me, they don'tseem any more! Especially since my Dad is 63 and his dad is 91; I also have a great aunt who is 100 or 101; the last of my grandmother's sibs still with us.

As for rap...

Never been a fan. I do like Dr. Dre's first album (The Chronic), especially Snoop Dogg's contributions; as well as a lot of NWA's stuff (Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and the late Eazy E all were members of NWA, kind of like the New Edition of rap). But none of their stuff is really appropriate for those under 18 (depending on the kid, I think you'd mostly understand the serious messages they incorporated into their "dope rhymes and hyped beats". Other than Too Short and Ice-T (I really like his acting, esp on Law & Order: SVU), there's really no one else.

I really can't stand Eminem or 50 Cent or the others that are dominating the charts these days.

Finally: Don't you think it's weird that nearly 70% (!) of those who buy rap albums are "white" teenaged boys?!?

Probably adolescent rebellion: what better way to piss off your parents than listening to something they hate or have banned you from listening to it.

And to think my parents were concerned about Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin!!

PainMan 09:34, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

And now for something completely different...

...actually, not really.

Haven't seen a reply from you in a while (nearly a month!). Drop me a line on my talk page. (I hope it wasn't anything I wrote.)

PainMan 07:20, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Response 6.0

No it wasn't anything you said. I have been gone for two weeks and when I got back I had a lot of work to do. Thank you for the complement about my writing.

I hope you enjoyed yourself wherever you were.

You're welcome for the comment about your writing. Most people, even "professional" writers are mediocre writers. I don't read our local papers for that reason. I can't read more than a few sentences without mispellings, grammatical errors, typos, missing words, you name it. I don't copyedit my own writing with a microscope; OTH, I'm not a major metropolitan newspaper.

I currently have 876 (I think) emails because I didn't check it for this last month.

I've been so bad about that lately. In my original email account (a Yahoo! account I've had since 1997, which has to make it one of the oldest continually used accounts they have), I have nearly 3000 I haven't read. Fortunately most of them are junk (the usually stuff: "You just won the Nigerian lottery! Send us $500 by wire and we'll transfer your $500,000 in winnings!!!" Sure).

But I've been neglecting my "email" friends as well the chatboards I usually frequent. Health's been bad. My daughter brought home a wicked cold; she was home five days and my wife's been home all week.

So the point is you have a much better chance on my talk page then my email at least for now. It is terrible how much that does happen so parents have to work to stop it.

My (7 yr) old girl does use the 'Net, but the computer's (my old one) is in my room and I make sure to monitor what's she doing. She's learning to get around; fortunately she doesn't type very well yet. I also have some "nanny software" on it and that seems to block the more egregious websites.

By the time she gets to your age I don't what I'm going to do. After all, in the Cyberworld, 7 yrs is a long, long time.

Sad thing is, my generation--and I'm sure you're Mom'll confirm this--are far more paranoid about our kids' safety that our parents were about ours.

The irony is that when your parents and I were kids between 150 and 200 kids under 18 were kidnapped (and almost always murdered and worse...) per year. Today, by contrast, only between 50 & 100 kids are kidnapped by strangers. So the danger of my kid getting snatched is %50 to %400 less than it was when we were kids. Yet I walked home from kindergarten at 4! I wouldn't let my daughter walk home now.

Sure, we got the "don't talk to strangers/get into their car/take candy from them."

The best thing I like to say to my daughter (which I copped from Dr. Laura) is, "No adult ever needs anything from any kid."

So we've had all the talks ("good touch" "bad touch" &c). Fortunately, they haven't been put to the test yet. Hopefully they never will.

And with all the paranoia, it can make an adult gun-shy about being around teen girls. I have a friend who was falsely accused years ago because the girl didn't want her mother to date the guy (there's a hilarious South Park episode about this; Cartman tells Stan how he got rid of one of his Mom's boyfriend, "I just called 911 and said he molestered [sic] and I haven't seen him in three months.")

I try not to put myself in any situation that could even be remotely compromising. Thankfully, my parents live only a few miles here and my grandma lives with them, so we basically have built in babysitting and don't have to worry about any complications.

I think it's a shame that things have come to this pass. In a way I'm glad I'm disabled and can't work. It's gotten to the point, in the work place, that simply complimenting a woman on her outfit is now grounds for a sexual harassment lawsuit. Right around the whole Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill nonsense (which was before you were born, if you're 15, the Thomas hearings were in 1991). I did exaclty the above, told a co-worker her outfit was beautiful that it matched the color of her skin flawlessly. And she starts barking sexual harassment. Hunh??!?

My mother also became his friend so it would make it much harder for him to lie.

I understand your Mom's concern.

One for sure way of determining what his intentions are would be for your Mom to create a teenaged identity and chat with the guy in your Yahoo! group.If she makes, ah, overtures and he responds to them, then you know you've got a bad apple--and you guys can alert the FBI to him. Soliciting a minor via the 'Net is a Federal crime.

It's what I'm gong to do when my daughter's old as a way to vet the people she meets on line.

While obviously there have to be ground rules and the proprieties obeyed, girls need to learn how to have Platonic relationships with men old than they are. The way are society works, as a young woman (esp. after college) you are almost certainly going to work for a man older than you are.

So, in my opinion, girls shouldn't be sheltered as much as educated. From reading what you write and your obviously strong sense of self, it's hard to imagine someone taking advantage of you.

Every parent does these days. I'm sure some of these kids (and it's not just girls who are targeted by "cyber-predators) think it's a great way to rebel against Mom & Dad. They don't realize they are potentially putting their lives in danger.

And the biggest thing our parents worried about was whether we were smoking exotic material and drinking liquid wheat on the weekends.

I have heard American Pie it is a good but sad song.

It's a wonderful song. Even tho' it's 8 minutes long, there's not a boring lyric or note.

The sadness Don McLean conveys is simply unfathomable. That one song (poem really) made him a mortal. He captured the entire essence of the tragedy of the Sixties in just 8 minutes.

Bye, bye Miss American Bye Drove my Chevy to the Levee, But the Levee was dry... And the good old boys were drinking whisky and rye... The day...the music...died...

Arggh!!! This is the kind of paranoia I'm talking about it. I was thinking, "I could just gift her the song thru iTunes." Then I thought, "No, that's exactly one of the things they tell parents to watch out for: older men buying underage girls gifts." So one can't even share that song with you without arousing suspicion or the mere fear of arousing suspicion.

My grandfather doesn't listen to music or watch most animated thing (there are very few exceptions).

My Dad only listens to music in his car: the Golden Golden Golden Oldies (e.g. Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, the Beach Boys, Bo Didley, et al). I doubt he ever bought a 45 except perhaps for a girlfriend or maybe my Mom.

He's basically a sports guy.

He was drafted by the Yankees back in the day (that would about 1961). He didn't make the cut; but the Yanks were the best team in baseball back then.

He's 5'9. Had he been 6'4" I don't doubt he would have had a career. But even in those days, 5'9 was a little short...

Unfortunately for his career (but very fortunately we his children!) he had to give up his dream of MLB. His first wife was pregnant. In 1961, dudes didn't run off on their pregnant girl friends. Today, sadly, most guys would simply abandon the girl to pursue a major league sports career. Justifying it, I'm sure, by telling themselves, "When I'm making 24856 gazillion dollars a year, I'll make it up to both of 'em."

PainMan 10:18, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Response 6.1

I'm currently writing a 500+ page story right now and lucky for me my writers block only last about an hour or two. My really problem is that I'm never happy with anything I write and just a week ago I got red of 10 pages (I know it doesn't seem like much but I have to write 3 paragraphs a week for school and if I can get a head that is always nice).

500 pages. Waaay to go.

I'd like to read it when it's done.

When I was your age ('nutha one of those things you swear you'll never say...) I wrote constantly. I filled my 20MB (yes MegaByte!) with dozens of stories, false starts, plays, outlines, etc.

But I really enjoy the writing, the sheer joy of watching the story unfold as my hands fly across the keyboard.

I don't think any other kind of artist can have that experience except writers. Sure, a composer can listen to his music [i]after[/i] it's recorded. An actor can watch his performance etc. But it doesn't compare to writing one's own story and hanging the edge of one's on keyboard because you don't know where it's going!

A girl who got it a few years ago started a recycling company and made over one million dollars and won the scholar ship.

Girl made a million bucks doesn't need a scholarship! She's a millionaire! Why go to school? Build the business. Then sell it and retire in your 20s. Then one can go study Taoist philosophy or 6th CCentury Tang poetry.

But if you are apart of a minority then you can get like a billion scholarships.

Are you of Indian descent? If so, you should check to see if you qualify for any scholarships from the tribe(s).

Each tribe has very, very different rules. Some require that you've grown up/live on the reservation. And they all require various degrees of descent. But it's definitely something to check out.

One thing you can do is apply for as many "little" scholarships as you can. Sure, it's great to get 1 scholarship for $10K, but 10 scholarships for $1K each is the same thing (even tho' a lot more paperwork, but, hey it spends the same and you don't have to pay it back).

Another thing is if you are planning to go to an out of state school, you might want to move their first and become a resident so you get resident tuition rates from that state's public universities. It can't save you tens of thousands of dollars over the course of your education (esp if you have your eyes on law school or med school or any grad school really).

If you have a relative who lives in the state where teh school is that you wish to attend, even better. If you're close with them, you can live with them.

It also give you a chance to save as much money possible whilst working. (And, if it's a state with junior colleges, you can always knock some of the more brain dead pre-reqs down, Lit, Comp, Math, etc; which can also save you money).

What kills me is that top schools now cost $40K/yr !(Harvard, Yale, Princeton, which aren't "top" in academic excellence any longer, but they still have some cachet; a law degree from any of the above, instead of say Indiana University or your homestate law school, will mean the diff between starting at $50,000 and starting at $170,000.)

By the time my kid is ready for college, the "top" schools will be over $100K a year.

I better hope that I write my amazing, record-setting, blocking-busting bestseller which gets turned into a a billion-dollar movie from which I net tens of millions of dollars...

Oh, damn, was I asleep again. Sorry!

PainMan 10:03, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Response 6.2 & 6.3

My Great-grandmother lived to be 99 we all thought that she would make it to 100. She had survived lunge cancer twice! Once when she was younger (I can't remember how old but some were between 40 and 70) and the second time when she was 90 (I think)!

My grandfather's 91 (Dad's dad). My mother's mother is 81. I have a great-aunt who is 101 (and still living by herself!).

The above-mentioned grandfather has had cancer twice, a heart-attack, a heart-valve replaced and other stuff I don't remember. My grandmother (his wife) died at 59, but he's still chugging along.

So I don't see 50 as old for a normal job but as a rock singer...

Lol. You're fifteen. Add 20+ yrs to that and 50 won't seem old for anything...

I t really doesn't surprise me that it is mostly white teenage boys because I have been around it. What is really bad is the white teenage boys who try to rap. They just don't have a flair for it.

I think it's mostly rebellion. Kids listened to metal back the Hair Band Days just to torque their parents. Same thing with rap. Their parents hate so that automatically makes it cool. I've always listened to what I like regardless of trends (especially in the face of them).

But I do remember at least one "white" kid who had the kind of delusions you mention. There was a term for guys like that back then but I won't put it up here. Those desperate to be offended would jump on it. And for those who would just be offended, I don't want to do so just for the heckuva it.

And Vanilla Ice was rather before your time (fortunate for you). He was hilarious. He was universally regarding as being a comedy act. After all, could anyone have intentionally been that bad?!

Unfortunately, he was.

The interesting thing is that he saved his money! He didn't blow like so many so-called "legit" "artists" who are flat broke, begging for change.

He invested his money mostly in Miami real estate. As did one of the New Kids on the Block; Jordan something? Anyway, he took his profits and invested them in Boston real estate and now he's a millionaire from his land holdings alone (and I'm sure the rents bring in a nice income as well). My wife was a huge fan back in the day; even got her picture taken with Donny and Mark Wahlberg's mother; there was a line just for a meet & greet with the NKOTB's parental units. Bizarre.)

His net worth is estimated at more than $20M. He's a got one Porche (one!) that cost $600,000.

So he may have been the world's worst rapper, but he's light years ahead of many a so-called "real" rapper.

They can talk all the smack they want; he gets to laugh all the way to the bank.

Hey, if you're going to be humiliated, you might as well become a millionare in the process, right?

PainMan 10:17, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Fruits Basket

Kakeru Manabe DOES have a girlfriend.Mooncrest (talk) 19:32, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Hope this finds you well. Hope the holidays treated you well.

PainMan (talk) 15:11, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Coton de Tulear

Hi Smileyface! My information on the Tall Coton de Tulear comes from R. Jay Russell's Official Coton de Tulear Book. I own two of Dr. Russell's Tall Cotons, and can verify they do exist. No unicorns here. The book is only available on CD-ROM, and can be purchased off the CTCA website. You can look at part of the information at:http://members.aol.com/captlemur/ . Bye! Poodle Girl (talk) 21:36, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Sorry! I originally left this information on your User Page by mistake. Poodle Girl (talk) 21:48, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi! I love all Cotons, but especially liked the look of the Talls. They are able to leap around (sometimes almost flying)and jump up in a way their shorter versions couldn't. Bye! Poodle Girl (talk) 01:26, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Merge Proposal

There is a discussion going on about whether or not to merge WikiProject Dogs and WikiProject Dog breeds together. Your input would be greatly appreciated. Coaster1983 (talk) 18:26, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

The Novels WikiProject Newsletter - Issue XXII - March 2008

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WikiProject Novels - 1st Coordinators Election

An election has been proposed and has been set up for this project. Description of the roles etc., can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Coordinators. If you wish to stand, enter your candidacy before the end of March and ask your questions of anyone already standing at Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Coordinators/May 2008. Voting will start on the 1st April and close at the end of April. The intention is for the appointments to last from May - November 2008. For other details check out the pages or ask. KevinalewisBot (talk) 13:59, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject United States/The 50,000 Challenge

You are invited to participate in the 50,000 Challenge, aiming for 50,000 article improvements and creations for articles relating to the United States. This effort began on November 1, 2016 and to reach our goal, we will need editors like you to participate, expand, and create. See more here!

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