If EmpressZario was freaked before, can you imagine what she's thinking about some of us now?? You are right about the invention of personalities. Each of us who are writing on the forum is nearly an anonymous figure. You really don't know who I am but you are making certain assumptions, and forming an opinion based on what I write. But you might be surprised if you actually met me. Or not. Depends on your imagination. When I look at a person, I also create a personality for them. One very nice gentleman I met was so eloquent, courtly in manner, and so stately, that I nearly fell off my bus seat when I found out he was a dedicated surfing dude. I made assumptions on the evidence I had...and I was wrong on almost every point about him. I did, as you said, invented a life for him and he surprised me. Which is not a bad thing. Life would be very dull if all our assumptions about people were 100% correct. But if you write, you find that your imaginatry creations (like my Poser characters) can also surprise you by coming up with a personality trait or thought pattern you hadn't planned out. Not all writers or artists are in complete control of their creations. Which is what makes the artistic effort very interesting indeed. Those unexpected detours are what I enjoy the most. :)

Dialyn, I've found that my stories have sometimes actually taken a different twist from what I originally had in mind for them. I've discovered things about my characters that I never thought of by rendering images of them. They've taken on characteristics, both physical and personality, from images that I've done of them, which really fleshed them out more. I also think of it as a drama rather than art design. But I also look at any art, whether it's digital here in the galleries, or paintings by the great masters, as a drama going on. I don't really care that much about the technical aspects of the art, but what's taking place with the characters that are in the image. For me, it's more of a story, rather than an artistic composition. I care more about what's going on in the minds of the characters than how they're arranged on the canvas or whether the lighting is effective. I want to know what's going to happen next for the people in the image. Melanie

Dialyn - I know I shouldn't be freaked out by it after two years, but, I dunno, it's just the same as if you saw someone talking to a person that wasn't there... :)

Melanie...that's the writer in you. That's how I look at things too. :) EmpressZario....actually, I have been known to do that too. If I am working out a piece of dialogue, I sometimes say it allowed without realizing what I am doing. The character I'm talking to is in my head. I think everyone has something that makes them uneasy. Yesterday a man got on the bus and sat behind me. He was by himself and he started verbalizing. It's not unusual to have people who talk or sing to themselves on the bus, but what freaked me about this guy is that he was imitated the noises the bus makes when it runs. If a four year old had done the same thing, it wouldn't have bothered me, but there was just something weird about a fifty year old doing it. But I thank you for this thread. I've enjoyed it very much. :)

freaked out after two years... lol... there are freaky ways of referring to people that are over 2,000 years old. I have a wonderful book of Inanna stories from ancient Sumeria, a good one from Diane Wolkstein and Sam Kramer, just so happens to be sitting in front of my computer monitor and made me think of this when reading these latest posts. These stories are thousands of years old, and I think about the goddess in the stories as someone real. (not 'real' as in a flesh and blood sense, but real as a character, real as an archetype, and she was real for quite a long time as a goddess in a religion, too.) And people talk about Jesus and God as real even though they don't exist in flesh and blood, and what's so different about that? How can you be freaked out over harmlessness here at R'osity when much more profound examples of the same thing exist in real life, shaping the very society that we live in? Sure is more important in the grand scheme of living than a website, anyway. I think people are just doing what they are built to do, and really why are you freaked out over what is normal? (I could answer my own question, but I won't... I'd rather read the response ;-))

Attached Link: http://xmas.emedia.co.uk/xmascard/

Well, bijou, God I could understand since there's no physical proof of a being ever existing, Jesus however, I do believe DID exist - but do I believe he's the son of a god? That's a different story :) I think it's scary to realize that in a few years we'll probably be seeing Marilyn Monroe in movies again... and Bette Davis... Judy Garland... Not that far off, if not already, that they can replicate stars of the past. If they bring back Marilyn, I'm sure, however, they're gonna slim down her figure. :)

hmmm... you've never met raven, have you? he talks to me. he even posted a comment on a picture of himself... (okay, now THAT freaked me out! )

you've never met raven, have you? raven, the person, or raven, the bird? we had a raven for a number of years, when i was growing up. bird was diabolical, but, very, very clever. and, he talked, too. actually, we did not technically OWN him...he belonged to god, i guess...but, he got hurt, and my father (yeah, me too, helped fix him up.) but, when he was better, he was free to go outside, as much as he wanted....we just left a window open for him. he would leave, each year...i guess to migrate. but, he would return every spring...nasty bird with a whole lot of attitude. he stole stuff, too. shiny stuff. he even got my 2 little turtles, that i had outside sunning. wicked bird. one spring, he did not return. that was a sad time. his name was Sam.